Necrosis as Programmed Cell Death

The process of cell death is the mechanism through which organisms eliminate useless cells. Hence, it is a normal process that maintains homeostasis. Cell removal can be effectuated by several pathways that involve complex and regulated molecular events specific to each type of cell death. Diverse studies have evidenced different types of cell death: apoptosis, autophagy, and necrosis. This chapter presents a brief review of the apoptotic and autophagic cell death processes but focuses attention primarily on necrosis because it has previously been considered an accidental and uncontrolled form of cell death. More recent evidence, however, has shown that, under certain circumstances, necrosis is conducted by a controlled program called necroptosis, which is now included as a programmed cell death process.