Origin: Greek suffix -osis
Apoptosis has 2 different meanings across 1 category:
a type of cell death in which the cell uses specialized cellular machinery to kill itself; a cell suicide mechanism that enables metazoans to control cell number and eliminate cells that threaten the animal's survival
"During embryonic development, apoptosis acts as an essential cleanup crew by triggering programmed cell suicide to remove unwanted tissue structures."
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.
"Researchers discovered that blocking apoptosis allowed cancerous cells to evade their natural programmed death mechanism."