The Bcl-2 family of proteins, and the regulation of neuronal survival.

Bcl-2 is the founder member of a growing family of cytoplasmic proteins that modulate the responses of many cell types to the diverse extracellular signals that affect their survival. Although knowledge of the functions of these proteins has come largely from studying cells of the immune system, increasing evidence implicates these proteins in modulating neuronal survival. Several of these proteins are expressed in the nervous system, and experimental overexpression of Bcl-2 prevents the death of neurones deprived of particular neurotrophic factors in vitro, and rescues developing neurones that would otherwise die in vivo.