Chapter 11 Cell death: Investigation and application in fish toxicology

Publisher This chapter reviews the recent developments in the molecular and biochemical studies of metazoan cell death and summarizes recent applications of this new information to the studies of toxicology in fishes. Cell death (apoptosis) plays an important role in the development and function of tissues and organs in all multicellular organisms, including fishes. Cell death can be induced by specific developmental cues that promote active, targeted cell removal (programmed cell death) or can be the passive consequence of pathological or toxicological cell injury (accidental cell death). The chapter explains apoptosis, apoptosis as a cellular response to toxicant exposure, and cell-death detection. Apoptosis is an active, gene-directed program of cell death that results in the deliberate self-destruction and orderly removal of individual cells from a tissue. This suicidal pathway to cell death plays an instrumental role in many biological processes, including tissue morphogenesis and homeostasis, nervous system development, immune system function, and germ-cell selection. There is abundant and accumulating evidence to suggest that apoptosis may be a biologically significant response to toxicant exposure. The apoptotic removal of cells whose function has been compromised by toxicant exposure is one means by which an organism can minimize the deleterious effects of toxicant exposure. A variety of approaches are routinely used to qualitatively or quantitatively assess toxicant-induced cell death in vitro.