Necrosis, distinction from apoptosis

The steps of apoptosis are distinct from those of necrosis which is a nonprogramed form of cell death in response to injury, in which the cell swells and bursts, causing inflammation. Apoptosing cells form a tight sphere and their membranes undulate, resulting in bulges that form blebs. The nuclear membrane breaks, and endonucleases clip chromosomes where the DNA is exposed from protective proteins. This occurs at 180-base... 

Necrotic cell death differs markedly from apoptosis, a morphologically distinct pathway to cell death under the control of conserved genetic elements (Table 1). Apoptotic cell death (a.k.a. programmed cell death or cell suicide) is an active cell death mechanism that functions to remove unwanted cells from a tissue in a controlled, orderly fashion. It generally affects cells in isolation, which exhibit a suite of conserved morphological and biochemical features that contrast sharply with those observed during necrosis. 

Apoptosis is characterized by the orderly dismantling of a cell without maintenance of plasma membrane integrity, displaying features listed in Table 18.1, and is distinct from an extreme type of cell death known as necrosis, that is characterized by disruption of the plasma cell membrane. In necrosis, loss of cellular plasma membrane... 

Homeostasis in multicellular organisms is based on a balance between life and death of cells. Apoptosis was recognized as a phenomenon distinct from necrosis by Wyllie... 

There is an increasing body of evidence that supports an apoptosis-necrosis cell death continuum. In this continuum, neuronal death can result from varying contributions of coexisting apoptotic and necrotic mechanisms [2]. Therefore the distinct designations... 

From the work of Wyllie and his colleagues it is now recognized that the death of nucleated cells can be classified into at least two distinct types necrosis or accidental death, and apoptosis (programmed cell death Kerr etal., 1972 Wyllie etal., 1980). 

Apoptosis The typical process in physiological cell death that is accompanied by nuclear and cytoplasmic condensation, fragmentation of cell bodies, chromosomal DNA fragmentation, loss of mitochondrial function, and alterations of cell membrane composition. It is distinct in these regards from necrosis. The term was created by Wyllie and Kerr. 

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