Cultured Cerebellar Granule Neurons as a Model of Neuronal Apoptosis

Apoptosis is one type of programmed cell death responsible for the physiological elimination of various cell populations during development (Wyllie, 1988). It has been estimated that up to 50% or more of vertebrate neurons in the central nervous system (CNS) die during embryonic development and/or early postnatal maturation via programmed cell death (Raff et al., 1993). There is increasing evidence that apoptosis may also be triggered pathologically in the adult CNS and may mediate the nonphysiological death of neurons characteristic of various neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease (Barinaga, 1993), and that which occurs following ischemic, traumatic, or chemical injury of the CNS (Yoshitatsu et al., 1994; Yan et al., 1995a).