Apoptosis

According to apoptosisinfo.com, "Apoptosis or Programmed Cell Death is basically cellular suicide" (3). Programmed cell death (PCD) usually occurs within multicellular organisms. Although several types of programmed cell death, apoptosis is the type of PCD which involves biochemical events that result in certain morphology characteristics. Eventually, this leads to the death of cells. "Blebbing, changes to the cell membrance such as loss of membrane assymetry and attachment, cell shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation, chromatin condensation, and chromosomal DNA fragmentation" are all characteristics that cells undergoing apoptosis have (3). Apoptosis does not cause damage to the organism when cellular debris is being disposed.

"Necrosis is a form of traumatic cell death that results from acute cellular injury" (4). When juxtaposing apoptosis and necrosis, apoptosis supplies an organism's life cycle with benefits. For example, when a fetus is developing in the mother, its fingers and toes are originally webbed. The cells of the "web" undergo apoptosis and cause the fetus' fingers and toes to separate. "Approximately between 50 and 70 billion cells die each day due to apoptosis in the average human adult" (3).

Studies concerning apoptosis have increased since the 1990's. Scientists have discovered that a variety of diseases that humans and animals have are due defective apoptotic processes. An excess amount of apoptosis causes hypotrophy, but "an insufficient amount results in uncontrolled cell proliferation, such as cancer" (3).