Apoptosis is one of the main types of programmed cell death which involves a cascade of biochemical events leading to specific cell morphology characteristics and ultimately death of cells.
Apoptosis is one of the best-characterized phenomena in cellular and molecular biology. Not only is it essential for successful development, but its deregulation also leads to a number of human diseases, most notably cancer.
The caspases are a group of cysteine protease enzymes essential to apoptosis, inflammation and necrosis. Caspase 3 has been identified as one of the key mediators of apoptosis.