Apoptosis: The Biological Recycling Protocol

Of course, cells are not noble martyrs; they do not simply choose to die for the benefit of its neighbors. However, at certain points in time, cells receive signals that instruct them to kill themselves. This signal can be received from within the cell or from outside, of which both scenarios will be covered in this post. Ultimately, cells will die if their demise is necessary to protect the entire organism from cellular malfunction.

Triggering Programmed Cell Death

The first trigger of apoptosis that we will discuss is in regards to DNA damage. As we discussed earlier, DNA is the most influential molecule in the living world. When it takes damage, the cell begins to degrade rapidly. However, this degradation is not harmless to the rest of the organism. Damaged genetic material may lead to cells releasing harmful compounds that can affect the rest of the organism (free radicals). Free radicals are very interesting organic compounds that can be fully understood on this website.

On top of this threat, if enough DNA is damaged within a cell, genomic destabilization occurs (basically, the DNA in the cell is not regulated at all) and cancer usually follows soon after.

So, what can be done about damaged cells? The solution is simple: destroy it in a controlled manner and then reuse the molecular machinery in other cells. Like all other biological mechanisms, efficiency is maximized with this approach.