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What is the definition of apoptosis?
Posted November 25, 2020

Answer

Apoptosis is a natural and normal part of an organism’s growth and development. It is defined as programmed cell death and is characterized by a series of specific morphological cellular changes. These changes occur in a highly-controlled manner as to not incur any additional damages to neighboring cells or adverse inflammatory responses.

Common morphological changes that occur during apoptosis include:

  • Loss of membrane asymmetry
  • Caspase activation
  • Loss of mitochondrial membrane potential
  • Nuclear condensation
  • DNA fragmentation
  • Membrane blebbing