Early Events in Apoptosis Induction in Polymorphonuclear Leukocytes

Abstract

Different white blood cells are involved in immune responses to pathogens, environmental stress, alterations in energy and nutrition supply as well as traumata. To find an adequate answer to the myriad of exogenous and endogenous noxes is a high challenge for the human immune system. Chronic inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, arteriosclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, and many others are associated with a disturbed regulation of immune functions (Peng, 2006; Zernecke & Weber, 2010). Despite numerous worldwide investigations regulatory aspects are only scarcely understood in innate and acquired immunity.