The granzymes are cell death-inducing enzymes, stored in the cytotoxic granules of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer cells, that are released during granule exocytosis when a specific virus-infected or transformed target cell is marked for elimination. Recent work suggests that this homologous family of serine esterases can activate at least three distinct pathways of cell death. This redundancy likely evolved to provide protection against pathogens and tumors with diverse strategies for evading cell death. This review discusses what is known about granzyme-mediated pathways of cell death as well as recent studies that implicate granzymes in immune regulation and extracellular proteolytic functions in inflammation.

中文翻译：

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一千次死亡：程序性细胞死亡的颗粒酶途径。

颗粒酶是细胞死亡诱导酶，储存在细胞毒性 T 淋巴细胞和自然杀伤细胞的细胞毒性颗粒中，当特定病毒感染或转化的靶细胞被标记为消除时，颗粒酶会在颗粒胞吐作用期间释放。最近的工作表明，这种丝氨酸酯酶的同源家族可以激活至少三种不同的细胞死亡途径。这种冗余可能会演变为通过多种策略来避免细胞死亡，从而提供针对病原体和肿瘤的保护。这篇综述讨论了关于颗粒酶介导的细胞死亡途径的已知内容，以及最近的研究，这些研究涉及颗粒酶在免疫调节中的作用和炎症中的细胞外蛋白水解功能。