Figure 2.

The intrinsic pathway of apoptosis. In response to stress signals, interactions among the different classes of BCL-2 family members at the outer mitochondrial membrane determine whether the cell is to survive or whether multidomain pro-apoptotic family members oligomerize and lead to mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization (MOMP) with the release of several factors, including cytochrome c, thereby committing the cell to apoptosis