Construct · 1 fields · 3 citations

apoptosis: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

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apoptosis1 CONSTRUCTApoptosisKERR 1972 · CELL DEATH

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Cell biology

The regulated, programmed form of cell death

Kerr, Wyllie, and Currie introduced the term apoptosis in 1972 in the British Journal of Cancer, taking a Greek word for the falling of leaves to name a distinct, orderly form of cell death they had observed under the microscope. Apoptosis is programmed cell death: a controlled, energy-requiring process in which a cell dismantles itself in a regulated sequence, shrinking, condensing its chromatin, and breaking into membrane-bound fragments that neighbouring cells clear away without provoking inflammation, in contrast to necrosis, the disorganised death that follows acute injury. Wyllie, Kerr, and Currie's 1980 review established apoptosis as a normal and necessary counterweight to cell division, essential to embryonic development, tissue turnover, and the removal of damaged or surplus cells, and the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death's 2018 recommendations set out its molecular machinery, centred on a family of proteases called caspases. What sets apoptosis apart as a landmark is its scope: it names the standard mechanism by which multicellular organisms delete cells on schedule, and its failure or excess is documented across cancer, neurodegeneration, and autoimmune disease.[1][2][3]

Unit
A named mode of cell death defined by its regulated morphology and its molecular pathway
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Identified by characteristic morphology (cell shrinkage, chromatin condensation, apoptotic bodies) and by assays for caspase activation, DNA fragmentation, and phosphatidylserine externalisation

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Nearby constructs

senescence4 fields · 7 citationsjingle · one word, four constructshomeostasis3 fields · 4 citationsjingle · one word, three constructsshrinkage4 fields · 7 citationsjingle · one word, four constructs

References

  1. Kerr, J. F. R., Wyllie, A. H., & Currie, A. R. (1972). Apoptosis: A basic biological phenomenon with wide-ranging implications in tissue kinetics. British Journal of Cancer, 26(4), 239–257. https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1972.33
  2. Wyllie, A. H., Kerr, J. F. R., & Currie, A. R. (1980). Cell death: The significance of apoptosis. International Review of Cytology, 68, 251–306. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0074-7696(08)62312-8
  3. Galluzzi, L., Vitale, I., Aaronson, S. A., Abrams, J. M., Adam, D., Agostinis, P., ... Kroemer, G. (2018). Molecular mechanisms of cell death: Recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death 2018. Cell Death & Differentiation, 25(3), 486–541. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-017-0012-4

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