title: Determination of apoptotic and necrotic cell death in vitro and in vivo.
abstract: Cell death research during the last decades has revealed many molecular signaling cascades, often leading to distinct cell death modalities followed by immune responses. For historical reasons, the prototypic and best characterized cell death modes are apoptosis and necrosis (dubbed necroptosis, to indicate that it is regulated). There is mounting evidence for the interplay between cell death modalities and their redundant action when one of them is interfered with. This increase in cell death research points to the need for characterizing cell death pathways by different approaches at the biochemical, cellular and if possible, physiological level. In this review we present a selection of techniques to detect cell death and to distinguish necrosis from apoptosis. The distinction should be based on pharmacologic and transgenic approaches in combination with several biochemical and morphological criteria. A particular problem in defining necrosis is that in the absence of phagocytosis, apoptotic cells become secondary necrotic and develop morphologic and biochemical features of primary necrosis.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Signaling and Cell Death Unit, Department for Molecular Biomedical Research, VIB, 9052 Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vanden Berghe
authors.forename: Sasker
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Grootjans
authors.forename: Vera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Goossens
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dondelinger
authors.forename: Dmitri V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Krysko
authors.forename: Nozomi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vandenabeele
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000235:genetics*; D020169:Caspases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002460:Cell Line; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D008264:Macrophages / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051379:Mice; D008853:Microscopy; D009336:Necrosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D010587:Phagocytosis; D059008:Time-Lapse Imaging
chemical_list: D020169:Caspases