Klin Onkol 1995; 8(5): 135-139.
Abstract: Anti-cancer therapies cause perturbations in cellular metabolism or specific cellular damage which lead to the programmed cell death process of apOptosis. Once induced, cells in the apoptotic pathway exhibit chromatin condensation and budding off of small membrane-bound appendages. A biochemical feature of apoptotic cells is self-degradation of DNA by double-strand cleavage between nucleosomes, leading to the production of oligonucleosomal fragments. Methods for detecting apoptotic cells include microscopy, assays for DNA fragmentation, labelling of DNA strand breaks, and various staining techniques for measurement by flow cytometry. These techniques are discussed as they relate to the clinic.
