Death Watch I: Cytotoxicity Detection

Suppliers of Cytotoxicity Reagents (Part 1)

Suppliers of Cytotoxicity Reagents (Part 2)

Editor's note: This is the first in a two-part series on cell death. A second article on apoptosis will be published June 25.

Courtesy of Loats Associates

A comet assay showing degradation of 45 percent of the genomic DNA

A few years ago the ultimate fate of dead cells was the laboratory trashcan. But cell necrobiology (the study of mechanisms of cell death) is now one of the hot fields of science.¹ Cells can die either passively (necrosis), or by an active mechanism involving signal transduction cascades (apoptosis). The degradative process of necrosis is accompanied by mitochondrial swelling and plasma membrane permeation; apoptosis is accompanied by an articulated breakdown of the cell into membrane-bound particles termed apoptotic bodies. In some cases cytotoxic effects and processes are typically apoptotic; the selection of T-lymphocytes and the effects of natural...