Mounting evidence suggests that excessive apoptosis plays a role in the
pathogenesis of Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and ALS as well.
For Huntington’s disease and ALS, both of which are associated with defined
genetic alterations, knockout or overexpression studies indicate that the
disease gene products act to regulate apoptotic cell death.207,208 Similarly, in
an in vivo Parkinson’s disease model, apoptotic cell death has been
reported.209