Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 30, 2026

Modeling Neuronal Death and Degeneration in Mouse Primary Cerebellar Granule Neurons
Published on: November 6, 2017
Diversity in the mechanisms of neuronal cell death
Junying Yuan1, Marta Lipinski, Alexei Degterev
1Department of Cell Biology, Harvard Medical School, 240 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, USA. jyuan@hms.harvard.edu
Abstract:
Neurons may die as a normal physiological process during development or as a pathological process in diseases. The best-understood mechanism of neuronal cell death is apoptosis, which is regulated by an evolutionarily conserved cellular pathway that consists of the caspase family, the Bcl-2 family, and the adaptor protein Apaf-1. Apoptosis, however, may not be the only cellular mechanism that regulates neuronal cell death. Neuronal cell death may exhibit morphological features of autophagy or necrosis, which differ from that of the canonical apoptosis. This review evaluates the evidence supporting the existence of alternative mechanisms of neuronal cell death and proposes the possible existence of an evolutionarily conserved pathway of necrosis.
Related Concept Videos
Overview of Cell Death
Cell death was observed in the early 19th century, but there was no experimental evidence to prove it. In 1842, Carl Vogt first discovered cell death in a metamorphic toad; however, it was not termed ‘cell death.’ Scientists discovered different cell death pathways only in the 20th century...
Necrosis
Morphological Manifestations of Necrosis
Necrotic cells show different types of morphological appearance depending on the type of tissue and infection. In coagulative necrosis, cells become anucleated and die, but their...
Cellular Injury IV: Necrosis
Cellular Injury IlI: Cellular Death
Cellular Injury I: Introduction
The Extrinsic Apoptotic Pathway
