There are two mechanisms for cell death: necrosis, which is a passive response to injury, and apoptosis, a mechanism of programmed cell death for removing excess cells produced during development or for removing cells that are functionally impaired, deficient or abnormal.
Apoptosis can result from multiple stimuli or the removal of survival factors such as hormones or growth factors. p53 is an important initiator following cellular injury.
The process of apoptosis involves a rapid and sustained increase in intracellular calcium that triggers endonuclease activation, leading to cleavage of DNA into fragments of about 180 base pairs. These can be detected as a DNA ‘ladder’ on gel electrophoresis.
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