Anticancer drug causing necrosis or apoptosis??

[Pavan]

HI, I wanted to know how to detect if a drug ( a purified fraction of the plant extract) is killing the cancer cells in the culture by apoptosis or necrosis??

Also what might be the potenial of the drug if it kills cells by apoptosis or necrosis? which is better?? I think apoptosis is.....

[palakshah4321]

I also wanted to know within how much time will apoptotic cells develop secondary necrosis since they are not phagocytosed?

[Bonnie]

There are lots of ways to determine whether cell death is apoptotic or necrotic; the best one for you will depend on what equipment you have available. One quick and simple way is to stain with Hoechst and look for nuclear fragmentation consistent with apoptosis, but it depends on your judgement so it might not be the best way if you don't know what you're looking for.

You can also stain for activated caspases, which are present in apoptotic cells, or if you need to be quantitative and you have a flow cytometer you can do a FACS-based TUNEL assay.