Molecular mechanisms of cell death: recommendations of the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death 2018

Abstract

Over the past decade, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death (NCCD) has formulated guidelines for the definition and interpretation of cell death from morphological, biochemical, and functional perspectives. Since the field continues to expand and novel mechanisms that orchestrate multiple cell death pathways are unveiled, we propose an updated classification of cell death subroutines focusing on mechanistic and essential (as opposed to correlative and dispensable) aspects of the process. As we provide molecularly oriented definitions of terms including intrinsic apoptosis, extrinsic apoptosis, mitochondrial permeability transition (MPT)-driven necrosis, necroptosis, ferroptosis, pyroptosis, parthanatos, entotic cell death, NETotic cell death, lysosome-dependent cell death, autophagy-dependent cell death, immunogenic cell death, cellular senescence, and mitotic catastrophe, we discuss the utility of neologisms that refer to highly specialized instances of these processes. The mission of the NCCD is to provide a widely accepted nomenclature on cell death in support of the continued development of the field.

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Affiliated Institutions

• Université Paris Cité FR
• Centro Nacional de Biotecnología ES
• University of Graz AT
• Frankfurt Cancer Institute DE
• Harvard University US
• University of Chile CL
• Universität Ulm DE
• Temple University US
• Scripps Research Institute US
• University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School US
• Johns Hopkins Medicine US
• Humanitas University IT
• Louisiana State University US
• South Australia Pathology AU
• Aix-Marseille Université FR
• Medical Research Council GB
• Expert System (Italy) IT
• Nawi Graz AT
• Helmholtz Zentrum München DE
• Centre for Cancer Biology AU
• Technion – Israel Institute of Technology IL
• Danish Cancer Society DK
• Istituti di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico IT
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences US
• Laboratoire d'Énergétique Moléculaire et Macroscopique, Combustion FR
• VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research BE
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute US
• Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai US
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill US
• Technical University of Munich DE
• Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center US
• Karolinska Institutet SE
• University of South Australia AU
• Massachusetts General Hospital US
• University of Rome Tor Vergata IT
• Universidad de Oviedo ES
• Northwestern University US
• Cancer Research UK GB
• Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel DE
• Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore IT
• Délégation Paris 5 FR
• Sunnybrook Research Institute
• Columbia University US
• University of Freiburg DE
• Fox Chase Cancer Center US
• The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center US
• Albert Einstein College of Medicine US
• St. John's University US
• Sunnybrook Hospital CA
• Cornell University US
• Institute of Cytology RU
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center US
• Medical University of South Carolina US
• Istituto Nazionale per le Malattie Infettive Lazzaro Spallanzani IT
• University of Ferrara IT
• Institut de génétique et de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire FR
• KU Leuven BE
• Goethe University Frankfurt DE
• University of Tübingen DE
• University of Zurich CH
• Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans US
• The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio US
• Istituto Dermopatico dell'Immacolata IT
• Children's Medical Center US
• Rockefeller University US
• University of Liverpool GB
• University of Chieti-Pescara IT
• Baylor Medical Center at Garland US
• University of Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" IT
• University of Oxford GB
• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital US
• Baylor College of Medicine US
• Weizmann Institute of Science IL
• RWTH Aachen University DE
• Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy FR
• Thomas Jefferson University US
• Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas ES
• Inserm FR
• MRC Toxicology Unit GB
• University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus DE
• Stanford University US
• Centre de recherche Translationnelle en Médecine moléculaire FR
• Queen Mary University of London GB
• University of California, San Diego US
• University of Bern CH
• University of Michigan US
• New York University US
• Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center US
• Johns Hopkins University US
• The University of Tokyo JP
• Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research AU

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