Apoptosis which is referred to as programmed cell death, is a process which follows a controlled, regulated routine – it’s when a cell commits suicide. This is a normal component of the health and development of multi-cellular organisms and is very distinct from necrosis, where uncontrolled cell death occurs leading to lysis of cells, inflammatory responses being triggered and potentially causing serious health problems. Apoptosis, on the other hand, is a process where cells are actually playing an active role in their own death.
When a cell is compelled to committing suicide, a family of proteins called caspases are typically activated during the early stages of the apoptosis. These proteins breakdown or cleave the essential cellular components that are needed for cell survival, this includes: structural proteins, DNA repair enzymes, cytoskeleton and nuclear proteins. It also activates other degradative enzymes such as DNases, which is responsible for destroying the DNA in the nucleus of the cell. This causes the cell to shrink and then send out distress signals, these signals are picked up by macrophages. Macrophages are responsible for cleaning away the shrunken cells without leaving any trace of the cell behind. Apoptosis can be initiated either by the death-receptor (extrinsic) pathway or by the mitochondrial (intrinsic) pathway.
Most Popular Apoptosis ELISA Kits
- Myeloperoxidase (MPO) ELISA Kit
- Retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4) ELISA Kit
- Annexin V (ANX-V) ELISA Kit
- B-cell-activating factor (BAFF) ELISA Kit
- TNF-Related Apoptosis-Inducing Ligand (TRAIL) ELISA Kit
- FAS (APO-1) ELISA Kit
- Caspase 8 (CASP8) ELISA Kit
- Caspase 2 (CASP2) ELISA Kit
- Survivin ELISA Kit
- Tumor Protein 53 (p53) ELISA Kit
- Granzyme B (Gzm-B) ELISA Kit
