Advances in Neuronal Cell Death 2007

In a stroke lesion, there is a core of necrotic cell deathsurrounded by a zone of tissue at risk, termed the penum-bra. In the penumbra, there is usually less severe tissue damage. Programmed cell death (PCD) pathways have been documented to be present in the penumbra. While many studies have used the term apoptosis as equivalent to PCD, the absence of complete biochemical and morphological characteristics of apoptosis, coupled with the ineffectiveness of caspase inhibitors, indicates that there are other important cell death pathways activated during stroke. A few caspase-independent cell death pathways have been identified and there are likely more to be described. Parthanatos Stroke injury leads to the activation of a cell death program, dependent on poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP1) acti-vation1 and culminating in apoptosis inducing factor (AIF)