apoptosis

English

sequence of events in apoptosis

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀπόπτωσις (apóptōsis, “a falling off”), from ἀπό (apó, “away from”) + πτῶσις (ptôsis, “falling”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌapɒpˈtəʊsɪs/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌæ.pəˈtoʊ.sɪs/, /ˌæpəpˈtoʊsəs/
• Rhymes: -əʊsɪs

Noun

apoptosis (countable and uncountable, plural apoptoses)

1. (biology, cytology) A process of programmed cell death by which cells undergo an ordered sequence of events which leads to death of the cell, as occurs during growth and development of the organism, as a part of normal cell aging, or as a response to cellular injury. [from 20th c.]
   • 1972, J. F. R. Kerr; A. H. Wyllie; A. R. Currie, “Apoptosis: A Basic Biological Phenomenon with Wide-ranging Implications in Tissue Kinetics”, in British journal of cancer‎^[1], volume 26, DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.1972.33:

     The term apoptosis is proposed for a hitherto little recognized mechanism of controlled cell deletion, which appears to play a complementary but opposite role to mitosis in the regulation of animal cell populations.

   • 1999, Matt Ridley, Genome, Harper Perennial 2004, p. 238:

     Indeed, so important is apoptosis that it is gradually becoming clear that almost all therapeutic cancer treatment works only because it induces apoptosis by alerting p53 and its colleagues.

   • 2011, Terence Allen and Graham Cowling, The Cell: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford 2011, p. 74:

     Apoptosis is routine in developmental processes such as the removal of webbing between fingers in humans, the loss of tadpole tails in amphibians, and insect metamorphosis.

Hypernyms

• programmed cell death

Coordinate terms

• autophagy

Derived terms

• apoptotic
• apoptotically
• necroapoptosis
• neuroapoptosis

Translations

death of cells

• Afrikaans: apoptose
• Arabic: اسْتِماتَة‎ (astimata)
• Armenian: ապոպտոզ (hy) (apoptoz)
• Azerbaijani: apoptoz
• Basque: apoptosi
• Belarusian: апаптоз m (apaptóz)
• Bengali: অ্যাপোপটোসিস (ôjapopṭośiś)
• Bulgarian: апоптоза f (apoptoza)
• Catalan: apoptosi (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 细胞凋亡 (xìbāodiāowáng)

• Czech: apoptóza f
• Danish: apoptose c
• Dutch: apoptose (nl) f
• Estonian: apoptoos
• Finnish: apoptoosi (fi), ohjelmoitu solukuolema
• French: apoptose (fr) f
• Galician: apoptose f
• Georgian: აპოპტოზი (aṗoṗṭozi)
• German: Apoptose (de) f
• Greek: απόπτωση (el) f (apóptosi)
• Hebrew: אַפּוֹפְּטוֹזָה‎ (he) m (apoptoza)
• Hindi: एपोप्टोसिस (epopṭosis)
• Hungarian: apoptózis (hu)
• Ido: apoptozo (io)
• Irish: apaptóis f
• Italian: apoptosi (it) f

• Japanese: アポトーシス (apotōshisu)
• Kannada: ಅಪೊಪ್ಟೋಸಿಸ್ (apopṭōsis)
• Korean: 세포자살 (sepojasal), 아포토시스 (apotosiseu)
• Kyrgyz: апопеоз (apopeoz)
• Lithuanian: apoptozė f
• Macedonian: апоптоза f (apoptoza)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: apoptose m

  Nynorsk: apoptose m

• Occitan: apoptòsi f
• Polish: apoptoza (pl) f
• Portuguese: apoptose (pt) f
• Romanian: apoptoză f
• Russian: апопто́з (ru) m (apoptóz)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: апопто́за f

  Roman: apoptóza f

• Slovak: apoptóza f
• Slovene: apoptoza f
• Spanish: apoptosis (es) f
• Swedish: apoptos c
• Thai: อะพอพโทซิส (à pôp-toh sít)
• Turkish: apoptozis, apoptoz
• Ukrainian: апопто́з m (apoptóz)
• Uzbek:

  Cyrillic: апоптоз

  Roman: apoptoz

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Spanish

Noun

apoptosis f (plural apoptosis)

1. (cytology) apoptosis

Further reading

• “apoptosis” in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014.