Cell death. A comprehensive approximation. Necrosis

The death of a cell can be defined as an irreversible loss of plasma membrane integrity and represents the final point in the cell life. There are three basic forms of cell death: necrosis (type III cell death), apoptosis (type I cell death) and autophagy (type II cell death). Until recently, the prevalent view was that cellular necrosis is the consequence of non-specific cell injury without underlying signalling events. Over the past decade, it has become evident that in certain conditions, necrosis is the result of a strictly regulated interplay of signalling events, which are initiated by a diverse range of stimuli, supporting the idea that necrotic cell death is as well controlled and programmed as caspase-dependent apoptosis. Thus, depending on the context necrosis might be fully unregulated or, on the contrary, programmed. In the present work, we describe, from a global point of view, an approximation to the necrosis.