Hormone nuclear receptors and their ligands: role in programmed cell death (review).

Programmed cell death (PCD) represents a highly efficient and very sophisticated system for removing cells from the surrounding environment. As deadly as it may be, PCD is essential for elimination of aberrant cells and the survival of the living organism as a whole. Therefore, PCD is meticulously controlled, and among major regulatory actors belong small lipophilic hormones acting as ligands of the members of a nuclear receptor superfamily.