Mechanisms of Caspase Activation

Caspase belongs to proteolytic enzymes family closely related to cell apoptosis,which exists in most metazoan cells as its preemzyme and plays an important role in apoptosis. Under the influence of apoptosis signals,caspase first activates initiator caspase, resulting in cascade reaction of caspase,and then splits specific substrates by executioner caspase activated to induce cell apoptosis. So the activation of caspase was the central component for inducing apoptosis, and there are different activating mechanisms between initiator caspase and executioner caspase.