Programmed cell death distinction from apoptosis

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). 

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. 

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