Required roles of Bax and JNKs in central and peripheral nervous system death of retinoblastoma-deficient mice.

Retinoblastoma-deficient mice show massive neuronal damage and deficits in both CNS and PNS tissue. Previous work in the field has shown that death is regulated through distinct processes where CNS tissue undergoes death regulated by the tumor suppressor p53 and the apoptosome component, APAF1. Death in the PNS, however, is independent of p53 and reliant on the death protease, caspase 3.