[Morphological and biochemical criteria for cell death]

The state-of-the-art of classifications of and criteria for cell death in the light of the 2009 recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death is presented as a lecture. Motivation is given for the necessity of using the unified criteria in the description of cell death and more than one study in its verification. The major structural and biochemical signs of four typical types of cell death--apoptosis, autophagia, keratinization, and necrosis are compared. Data are given on the major atypical forms of cell death--mitotic catastrophe, anoikis, exitotoxicity, Wallerian degeneration, paraptosis, pyroptosis, pyronecrosis, and entosis.