Methods for Detection of Apoptosis in the CNS

Despite recent scientific advances, the mechanisms inducing neuronal death in many human brain diseases remain unknown. Selective neuronal vulnerability, often with slowly developing loss of neurons, is a common feature of neurodegenerative disorders, infectious CNS diseases and their postinfectious states, certain forms of epilepsy, and hypoxic injuries. The assessment of damage in the CNS is complicated by the finding that neurons, although selectively damaged, are not the only group of cells involved in disease processes within the brain. Neuronal death even may be a secondary event induced by loss of function in glial populations or secretion of neurotoxic substances such as cytokines. However, recent data suggest that one common mechanism of neuronal loss in several CNS diseases may be apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death.