Cellular Death
Definition
Progressive death of individual cells after somatic death; different tissues die at different rates (cornea minutes, nerve cells hours, fibroblasts up to 24 hours).
Related terms
- Adipocere
- A waxy, soap-like substance formed by saponification of body fat under anaerobic, wet, cool-to-moderate conditions. Replaces unsaturated fatty acids with saturated palmitic...
- Algor Mortis
- Postmortem cooling of the body toward ambient temperature, approximately 1-1.5 degrees Celsius per hour under average conditions. Used alongside other postmortem changes...
- Bichat's Trio
- The three modes of death: coma (cerebral failure), asphyxia (respiratory failure), syncope (cardiac/circulatory failure). Named after Xavier Bichat, 1800.
- Brain Death
- Irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brainstem. Defined under Harvard criteria 1968 and adopted in India under...
- Somatic Death
- The irreversible cessation of vital functions of the organism as a whole: cardiac activity, respiratory activity, and integrated neurological function. The threshold...
Explained in
- Thanatology: Death, Causes, Signs and Post-Mortem ChangesProgressive death of individual cells after somatic death; different tissues die at different rates (cornea minutes, nerve cells hours, fibroblasts up to 24 ho...