Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Feb;128(3):426-431.
doi: 10.1038/s41416-022-02020-0. Epub 2022 Nov 11.

50 years on and still very much alive: 'Apoptosis: a basic biological phenomenon with wide-ranging implications in tissue kinetics'

Christoph Nössing  1   2 , Kevin M Ryan  3   4
Affiliations
Review

50 years on and still very much alive: 'Apoptosis: a basic biological phenomenon with wide-ranging implications in tissue kinetics'

Christoph Nössing et al. Br J Cancer. 2023 Feb.

Abstract

Cell death is part of the lifecycle of every multicellular organism. Nineteenth-century pathologists already recognised that organised forms of cell death must exist to explain the demise and turnover of cells during metamorphosis (of insects), embryogenesis and normal tissue homoeostasis [1]. Nevertheless, Kerr, Wyllie and Currie in their seminal paper of 1972, were the first to collate and define the distinct morphological features of controlled cell death in different contexts [2]. To describe the processes of cell deletion observed under both physiological and pathological conditions, they coined the term 'Apoptosis' (derived from the Greek word 'ἀπόπτωσις', meaning 'dropping off or falling off' of petals from flowers). Kerr, Wyllie and Currie defined apoptosis as a mechanism 'complementary to mitosis in the regulation of animal cell populations'. In addition, they already recognised the potential to use this programmed form of cell death for cancer therapy, but they also emphasised the occurrence of apoptosis during cancer development. In this article, some 50 years after its initial publication in The British Journal of Cancer, we revaluate and put the authors initial assumptions and general concepts about apoptosis into the context of modern-day biology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Morphological and molecular events in apoptosis.
Despite 50 years of progress on the delineation of the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis, the morphological characteristics of apoptosis as described by Kerr, Wyllie and Currie, including nuclear condensation, membrane blebbing, cell fragmentation, formation of apoptotic bodies and engulfment by phagocytic cells are still very much accepted as cellular events associated with apoptotic death. Figures were generated with the aid of the Library of Science and Medical Illustrations.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Citations per year in the period 1972–2021 of ref. [2].
Citations collated from NCBI.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Clarke PG, Clarke S. Nineteenth century research on naturally occurring cell death and related phenomena. Anat Embryol. 1996;193:81–99. doi: 10.1007/BF00214700. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kerr JF, Wyllie AH, Currie AR. Apoptosis: a basic biological phenomenon with wide-ranging implications in tissue kinetics. Br J Cancer. 1972;26:239–57. doi: 10.1038/bjc.1972.33. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Galluzzi L, Vitale I, Aaronson SA, Abrams JM, Adam D, Agostinis P, et al. Molecular mechanisms of cell death: recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death 2018. Cell Death Differ. 2018;25:486–541. doi: 10.1038/s41418-017-0012-4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Wyllie AH, Kerr JF, Currie AR. Cell death in the normal neonatal rat adrenal cortex. J Pathol. 1973;111:255–61. doi: 10.1002/path.1711110406. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kerr JF, Searle J. The digestion of cellular fragments within phagolysosomes in carcinoma cells. J Pathol. 1972;108:55–8. doi: 10.1002/path.1711080107. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types