Apoptosis or programmed cell death plays a key role in the morphogenesis during early development as well as in the maintenance of tissue homeostasis in adult organisms. The mechanism of apoptosis has been intensely studied, and early stages of the apoptosis pathway are about to be fully understood. However, events in later stages, the fate of apoptotic cells in particular, remain to be characterized. The Gordon Conference on Apoptotic Cell Recognition &Clearance, to be held June 28~July 3, 2009 at Colby-Sawyer College, New Hampshire, will deal with this issue. This is the only regular international meeting in the relevant research field and will be the fourth meeting in this series: the previous ones were held in 2003, 2005, and 2007. Cells undergoing apoptosis disappear in our body through phagocytosis, a biological event in which cells take up and digest other cells. Conceivably, the phagocytic elimination of apoptotic cells is the ultimate objective of apoptosis. Cells infected with microbial pathogens are induced to undergo apoptosis and cleared by phagocytosis. Other pathogenic cells are also eliminated once they become apoptotic. Furthermore, phagocytes that have engulfed apoptotic cells suppress inflammation and activate acquired immunity. In fact, failure in the prompt clearance of apoptotic cells often leads to the development of diseases such as inflammation, autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. The machinery of apoptotic cell clearance could be artificially activated so that pathologic cells are effectively removed. Therefore, to delineate the molecular basis for apoptotic cell clearance should lead to medical advance toward overcoming serious diseases. Much has been discussed in the past meetings, but there still remain a number of issues to be solved: what molecules are responsible for the recognition of apoptotic cells by phagocytes;how signals for the induction of phagocytosis are transmitted in phagocytes;what mechanisms underlie processing engulfed apoptotic cells;and how promising is the medical application of this phenomenon. We are presumed to be close to a solution because strong papers describing such issues were published in the past couple of years. The 2009 meeting will assemble recent knowledge and upcoming unpublished observations to gain clearer images for the mechanisms and consequences of apoptotic cell clearance.
Cells that have become harmful to our health, such as virus-infected cells and tumors, are often induced to undergo cell death and become susceptible to removal by immune cells. Furthermore, this machinery in our body could be artificially activated so that dangerous cells are more effectively eliminated. The meeting to be held as Gordon Research Conference on Apoptotic Cell Recognition &Clearance should lead to medical advance toward overcoming serious diseases.
