What is apoptosis?

What is apoptosis?

• A. Programmed cell death in which a cell systematically degrades its own components via proteolytic caspases.
• B. The unregulated bursting of a cell due to injury.
• C. A process of cell division to form two daughter cells.
• D. A cytotoxic response by immune cells.

Answer: (A)

Apoptosis is programmed cell death in which a cell systematically degrades its own components via proteolytic caspases. These caspases are a family of proteases activated in a tightly regulated cascade that dismantles cellular structures, fragments DNA, and leads to cell shrinkage and membrane blebbing. The dying cell is transformed into small, membrane-bound fragments called apoptotic bodies, which are promptly cleared by phagocytes. Because the cellular contents are contained and removed efficiently, inflammation is minimized. This is different from unregulated cell death due to injury, which is necrosis and often causes inflammation from the release of cellular contents. It’s also not about cell division, which is mitosis, or about an immune cell’s cytotoxic attack in general; while immune cells can trigger apoptosis in target cells, the process described is the cell’s own, orderly self-destruction.

Apoptosis is programmed cell death in which a cell systematically degrades its own components via proteolytic caspases. These caspases are a family of proteases activated in a tightly regulated cascade that dismantles cellular structures, fragments DNA, and leads to cell shrinkage and membrane blebbing. The dying cell is transformed into small, membrane-bound fragments called apoptotic bodies, which are promptly cleared by phagocytes. Because the cellular contents are contained and removed efficiently, inflammation is minimized.

This is different from unregulated cell death due to injury, which is necrosis and often causes inflammation from the release of cellular contents. It’s also not about cell division, which is mitosis, or about an immune cell’s cytotoxic attack in general; while immune cells can trigger apoptosis in target cells, the process described is the cell’s own, orderly self-destruction.