Figure 1.

Apoptotic and necrotic cell death. Apoptosis is an organized form of programmed cell death that is characterized by shrinkage of the cell body, blebbing of the cell membrane, chromatin condensation, fragmentation of the nucleus, cleavage of chromosomal DNA, and division into numerous cell fragments (apoptotic bodies).Necrosis occurs when the volume of the cell increases, organelles swell, the plasma membrane ruptures, intracellular contents spill into the extracellular matrix, and there is postlytic DNA fragmentation.