2011

TS Saraswathy, AS Santana Raj, Khairul A Othman, Aida Suhana R, Izan Izan Shahrina A and Zainah S (2011). Apoptosis versus necrosis: electron microscopy observations of cell death events in influenza A virus and chikungunya virus induced infection of cultured cells. Annals of Microscopy 11: 44-49

Viruses are obligate intracellular parasites and the most obvious potential outcome of a virus infection at cellular level is the death of the host cell. Although some viruses may employ strategies to prevent cell death during pathogen replication to persist in the host cell, the escape of mature virions after replication and dissemination to new host cells may eventually require cell lysis. Cell death may occur by a variety of complex mechanisms but the 2 most commonly described is necrosis and apoptosis, which differ both morphologically and biochemically. Necrosis is a passive, degenerative process which is a result of gross injury to the cell, while apoptosis or programmed cell death is an active process driven by the cell. In this study, we have illustrated the cell death events of Infl uenza A virus infection in MDCK cell culture and Chikugunya virus infection in BHK-21 cell culture using transmission electron microscopy and reviewed the cell death mechanisms induced by virus infections in cultured cells.