Measurement of cell death in mammalian cells.

This unit presents methods used to assess cell death in mammalian cells. The unit is divided into five sections: (1) a brief overview of cytotoxicity and pathways of cell death, (2) an improved method to measure cell death using lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) release as a marker of membrane integrity, (3) a flow cytometry method that simultaneously measures two types of cell death, oncosis and apoptosis, (4) use of nuclear morphology to assess apoptosis and oncosis, and (5) a brief discussion of the use of cytotoxicity assays to determine the mechanisms of cell death.