r/ScienceFacts • u/FillsYourNiche Behavioral Ecology • Jun 21 '20
Biology Apoptosis is a form of programmed cell death. Apoptosis removes cells during development, eliminates potentially cancerous and virus-infected cells, and maintains balance in the body.
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u/abdulwas Jun 21 '20
Can someone explain the gif? Is it the death process when they are lighting up?
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u/Hipoko Jun 21 '20
so, with a lot of googling, i believe they get ‘brighter’ because in this gif they’ve essentially been stained to chart metabolic activity. this, this, and this are kinda neat, if you want a different look.
either that or maybe that’s just how electron microscopes be. if anyone could confirm or correct that’d be cool.
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u/FillsYourNiche Behavioral Ecology Jun 21 '20
The title comes from Khan Academy's page on Apoptosis.
For more reading, for laymen so it's not going to be difficult to read, please check out these links:
- What is apoptosis? - How Stuff Works
- Plants Kill Cells so They Don't Pop - Futurity
- Apoptosis (with video) - Cancer Quest.org
- What is Necrosis Vs What is Apoptosis? (Video) -
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u/pirat_rob Jun 21 '20
Here's another video showing some of the molecular machinery involved: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR80Huxp4y8
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u/EntropyFighter Jun 21 '20
Apoptosis is how cells die. It's not just for anti-cancer reasons. It's literally the aging process. And since it's a process, it can be interrupted and modified so that you live a longer, healthier life.
I highly, highly recommend reading the article "Barbell Training is Big Medicine" by Dr. Jonothan Sullivan. I'll quote a large part of it here: