17/10/22, 7:41 Apoptosis en el Desarrollo Embrionario | La Enciclopedia del Proyecto Embryo

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Apoptosis en el desarrollo embrionario

Por: Zane Bartlett

Publicado: 2017-06-08
Palabras clave: Apoptosis (/keywords/apoptosis)

La apoptosis, o muerte celular programada, es un mecanismo en el

desarrollo embrionario que ocurre naturalmente en los organismos.
La apoptosis es un proceso diferente de la necrosis celular, que es la
muerte celular descontrolada generalmente después de una
infección o un trauma específico. A medida que las células proliferan
rápidamente durante el desarrollo, algunas de ellas sufren apoptosis
(/search?text=apoptosis) , que es necesaria para muchas etapas del

desarrollo, incluido el desarrollo neural (/search?text=neural%20development) , la

reducción (/search?text=reduction) de los óvulos (/search?text=egg) (ovocitos) al nacer,
así como la formación de dedos y órganos vestigiales en humanos
(/search?text=humans) y otros . animales Sydney Brenner (/search?

text=Sydney%20Brenner) , H. Robert Horvitz y John E. Sulston recibieron el

Premio Nobel de Fisiología o Medicina en 2002 por su trabajo sobre
la genéticaregulación (/search?text=regulation) del desarrollo de órganos y
muerte celular programada. La investigación sobre linajes celulares
antes y después del desarrollo embrionario puede conducir a nuevas

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formas de reducir o promover la muerte celular, lo que puede ser

importante para prevenir enfermedades como el Alzheimer o el
cáncer.

Karl Vogt observó el fenómeno de la apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) en

Neuchâtel, Suiza, en 1842, pero Vogt no utilizó el término apoptosis
(/search?text=apoptosis) . Vogt notó en embriones de sapo partero ( Alytes

obstetricans (http://eol.org/pages/330761/overview) ) que las células de la notocorda

(/search?text=notochord) , una estructura esquelética cartilaginosa,
desaparecían y eran reemplazadas por células de las vértebras.
Aunque Vogt documentó que algunas células desaparecían durante
el desarrollo, no centró su investigación en ese fenómeno. Los
investigadores no prestaron mucha atención a la apoptosis hasta
1885, cuando Walther Flemming, que trabajaba en la Universidad de
Kiel en Kiel, Alemania, utilizó técnicas de tinción más avanzadas en el
(/search?text=apoptosis)núcleo celular. (/search?text=nucleus)para observar lo que

llamó cromatólisis, la disminución del material nuclear en las células

moribundas. La cromatólisis es parte del proceso de apoptosis (/search?
text=apoptosis) , pero la investigación de Flemming se vio ensombrecida
hasta que el biólogo Alfred Glücksmann, que trabajaba en el
Laboratorio de Investigación Strangeways (/search?
text=Strangeways%20Research%20Laboratory) en Cambridge, Inglaterra, publicó una
revisión de la literatura sobre muerte celular en 1951.

En su revisión, Glücksmann planteó la hipótesis de que para que un

organismo crezca y se desarrolle, debe ocurrir la muerte celular. En
el momento de la revisión de Glücksmann, muchos científicos
interpretaron las células muertas como subproductos metabólicos de
células en mitosis (/search?text=mitosis) o replicación celular. Glücksmann
presentó pruebas de investigaciones embriológicas anteriores que
describían la muerte celular planificada como un aspecto del
desarrollo normal. La hipótesis de Glücksmann pasó desapercibida
durante más de veinte años. Sin embargo, John F. Kerr, Andrew H.
Wyllie y Alastair R. Currie, patólogos que trabajan en la Universidad
de Aberdeen en Aberdeen, Escocia, mencionaron la revisión de
Glücksmann como motivación para desarrollar su propia
investigación sobre la apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) en 1972.

Kerr had first studied cell death in 1965 when he noticed atrophy, or
shrinkage, in rat (/search?text=rat) liver cells under an electron microscope
(/search?text=microscope) . Kerr noticed that the shrinkage was distinct from
necrosis due to trauma, which normally causes the cell to rupture and
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release its contents. A few years later, Kerr and his colleagues noted
common patterns involved in cell death related to their research and
recorded in previous experiments and reviews, including
Glücksmann's work. Kerr and his team framed their research focus
as about programmed cell death, a concept that Richard Lockshin
and Carroll Williams at St. John's University New York City, New
York, had used in 1964. Kerr and his colleagues coined the term
apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) to describe programmed cell death. They
claimed that cell death from apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) was not
accidental, and that it followed the same pattern in both developing
and developed cells. With their 1972 article, Kerr and his team
brought the idea of apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) to greater scientific
attention.

Kerr, Wyllie, and Currie's research clarified the process of apoptosis

(/search?text=apoptosis) as a series of specific steps, later verified by other

researchers. First, cells undergoing apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) begin to

shrink in size and lose physical connections with neighboring cells.
Second, the chromatin (/search?text=chromatin), or the combination of DNA
and protein within the cell nucleus (/search?text=nucleus), condenses and
enzymes begin to fragment the chromatin (/search?text=chromatin) within the
cell. Third, the cell membrane bulges irregularly, or blebs. Fourth, the
nucleus (/search?text=nucleus) collapses and breaks into fragments containing
pieces of chromatin (/search?text=chromatin), while the cell continues to bleb.
Fifth, the cell breaks into several smaller membrane bodies that
contain various cellular fragments, called apoptotic bodies. Lastly,
white blood cells, also called phagocytes, or neighboring cells engulf
the apoptotic bodies and break them down. The organism suffers no
major injury as a result.

After Kerr, Wyllie, and Currie published their research, scientists

accepted apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) as a mechanism in cellular
development and began to study its significance in development and
disease. For example, since the 1970s Sydney Brenner (/search?
text=Sydney%20Brenner) in Berkeley, California, Robert Horvitz in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and John Sulston in Cambridge, England, conducted
much of their early research on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans
(http://eol.org/pages/403869/overview) (C. elegans). Through diagrams of cell

lineages and careful documentation, Brenner, Horvitz, and Sulston

predicted when cell death would occur, and they identified some of
the genes (/search?text=genes) involved in the regulation (/search?text=regulation) of

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cell death. In particular, Horvitz noted that C. elegans neurological

development included a large amount of apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis),
with 105 of the 131 programmed cell deaths occurring in neural cells.
Brenner, Horvitz, and Sulston received the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine (/search?text=Nobel%20Prize%20in%20Physiology%20or%20Medicine) in 2002 for
their work in genetic regulation (/search?text=regulation) of organ development
and programmed cell death.

Research conducted after Brenner, Horvitz, and Sulston published

their findings on C. elegans reinforced the theory that programmed
cell death through apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) is essential for
development in animals. In 1993, scientists working with Horvitz
found that a gene in mice was very similar to the gene that codes for
an enzyme that causes cell death during development in C. elegans.
The research showed that the apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) observed in
C. elegans also occurs in mammals.

In 1997, Michael Jacobson and researchers at the MRC Lab of

Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England, outlined the importance of
cell death in animals in the article "Programmed Cell Death in Animal
Development". Jacobson and colleagues claimed that the primary
functions of apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) are to sculpt the organism by
deleting unwanted structures, controlling the number of cells, and
eliminating nonfunctional, harmful, abnormal, or misplaced cells.
Absence of apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) can include malformations of
digits, decreased neurological function, malformations of the heart,
or even cancer. For example, soft tissue cells between the fingers
and toes undergo apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) in order to separate the
digits from each other during development. The proper formation of
heart loops also relies on the process of apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis).

In his article "The Apoptotic Oocyte," Gary Wessel from Brown

University in Providence, Rhode Island, discusses the role of
apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) in human females. Human female oocytes
undergo apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) during development and after birth.
Scientists estimate that seven to eight million oocytes are formed in
the fetus (/search?text=fetus), which are reduced to about 100,000 oocytes at
birth, and then only a few hundred at the onset of menopause.

Apoptosis occurs not only during embryonic development, but also

after birth. In humans (/search?text=humans) for example, brain cells undergo
apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) prior to and following birth to eliminate

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excess brain cells and streamline nerve impulses. Apoptosis also

occurs in some cells that the body identifies as cancerous to prevent
the spread of the cancer and kill the cancerous cells. However,
unregulated apoptosis (/search?text=apoptosis) can cause disorders, such as
Alzheimer's disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which is a
motor neuron (/search?text=neuron) disease.

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como citar
Bartlett, Zane, "Apoptosis en el desarrollo embrionario". Enciclopedia
del Proyecto Embryo (2017-06-08). ISSN: 1940-5030
http://embryo.asu.edu/handle/10776/11565.
Mostrar registro completo del artículo (https://hpsrepository.asu.edu/handle/10776/11565)

Editor
Universidad del estado de Arizona. Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida.
Centro de Biología y Sociedad. Enciclopedia del Proyecto Embryo.

Derechos
Copyright Junta de Regentes de Arizona Licenciado como Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (CC
BY-NC-SA 3.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

Última modificación
martes, 3 de julio de 2018 - 21:40

Tema
teorías (/topics/theories)

Tema
apoptosis; apoptosis; Brenner, Sídney; Horvitz, H. Robert;
Regulación genética; Vogt, Karl Christoph, 1817-1895; Glucksmann,
A. (Alfred), 1875-; Kerr, John Fairhurst; Caenorhabditis elegans;
Células; Células germinales; neuronas; muerte celular; organismos;
Flemming, Walther, 1843-1905; Wessel, Gary M.; Kerr, John
Fairhurste; Lockshin, RA (Richard A.); ganadores del Premio Nobel;
Concepto

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