Apoptosis Versus Necrosis

Abstract

he word apoptosis was coined, from its Greek equivalent, in 1972 (1), but its morphological identity as a distinct kind of cell death was recognized by Flemming as long ago as 1885 (2). The word necrosis has been used in English, French (“nécrose”), and German for several centuries to mean the mortification of tissue, and 2000 years ago its Greek equivalent carried a similar meaning. Even today, the word is still frequently used in this general sense, but since 1980 it has been given a particular, cellular, sense, with the claim that virtually all cell deaths can be classified dichotomously as either apoptosis or necrosis (3). Previously, this necrosis had been called “coagulative necrosis” by several authors including Kerr et al. (1)