IBYME   02675
INSTITUTO DE BIOLOGIA Y MEDICINA EXPERIMENTAL
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
GUIDELINES FOR THE USE AND INTERPRETATION OF ASSAYS FOR MONITORING CELL DEATH
Autor/es:
LORENZO GALLUZZY; JOHN ABRAMS; EMAD ALNEMRI; GABRIEL RABINOVICH; GUY SALVESEN; LUCA SCORRANO; HANS-UWE SIMON; ANDREAS STRASSER; JURG TSCHOPP; PETER VANDENABEELE; ANDREAS VILLUNGER; YUNYING YUAN; BORIS ZHIVOTOVSKY; GUIDO KROEMMER
Revista:
CELL DEATH AND DIFFERENTIATION
Editorial:
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
Referencias:
Lugar: Londres; Año: 2009 vol. 16 p. 1093 - 1107
ISSN:
1350-9047
Resumen:
Cell death is essential for a plethora of physiological processes, and its deregulation characterizes numerous human diseases. Thus, the in-depth investigation of cell death and its mechanisms constitutes a formidable challenge for fundamental and applied biomedical research, and has tremendous implications for the development of novel therapeutic strategies. It is therefore of the utmost importance to standardize the experimental procedures that identify dying and dead cells in cell cultures and/or in tissues, from model organisms and/or humans, in healthy and/or pathological scenarios. Thus far, dozens of methods have been proposed to quantify cell death-related parameters. However, no guidelines exist regarding their use and interpretation, and nobody has thoroughly annotated the experimental settings for which each of these techniques is most appropriate. Here, we provide a non-exhaustive comparison of methods to detect cell death with apoptotic or non-apoptotic morphologies, their advantages and pitfalls. These guidelines are intended for investigators who study cell death, as well as for reviewers who need to constructively critique scientific reports that deal with cellular demise. Given the difficulties in determining the exact number of cells that have trespassed the point-of-no-return of the signaling cascades leading to cell death, we emphasize the importance of performing multiple, methodologically-unrelated assays to quantify dying and dead cells.