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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Aug 5.
Published in final edited form as: Oncogene. 2008 Dec;27(0 1):S149–S157. doi: 10.1038/onc.2009.52

Fig 1. The mitochondrial apoptotic pathway.

Fig 1

Cellular stress activates both sensitizer and activator BH3-only proteins. The sensitizer BH3-only proteins inhibit the anti-apoptotic BCL-2 family, while the direct activators cause the activation leading to oligomerization and insertion of BAX and BAK into the mitochondrial membrane. Mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP) causes the release of Cytochrome c, which forms a complex with caspase-9, APAF-1 and dATP/dADP triggering downstream apoptotic events.