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 Apoptosis, or Programmed Cell Death (PCD), is very important to higher organisms. It allows for the non-necrotic killing of unneeded or dangerous cells. (If cells were killed by necrosis, inflammation would damage surrounding tissues.)
Apoptosis is used in development: the disappearance of a frog's tail, the differentiation of fingers and toes, and the removal of unneccessary neurons in the brain. It is also used in defense: virally infected cells, cells with DNA damage, and self-reactive immune system cells are killed by apoptosis
Although this site's main focus is glucocorticoid-induced apoptosis, many of the processes presented here take place in other forms of apoptosis.
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