BAX and Machado-Joseph disease: Hence, the levels of the apoptosis related BCL2, BAX and TP53 transcripts in cross-sectional and longitudinal samples of peripheral blood from MJD carriers (patients and pre-clinical subjects) were assessed to gather further insights into the dysregulation of mitochondrial apoptosis in MJD and to evaluate their capacity of being used as transcriptional biomarkers of MJD.