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 Ultrastructural aspects of autoschizis: a new cancer cell death induced by the synergistic action of ascorbate/menadione on human bladder carcinoma cells. Gilloteaux J, Jamison JM, Arnold D, Taper HS, Summers JL. Ultrastruct Pathol. 2001 May-Jun;25(3):183-92.

Department of Anatomy, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Pennsylvania 16509-1025, USA. jgilloteaux@lecom.edu

Scanning and transmission electron microscopy were employed to further characterize the cytotoxic effects of a ascorbic acid/menadione (or vitamin C/vitamin K3) combination on a human bladder carcinoma T24 cell line. Following 1-h treatment T24 cells display membrane and mitochondrial defects as well as excision of cytoplasmic fragments that contain no organelles. These continuous self-excisions reduce the cell size. Concomitant, nuclear changes, chromatin disassembly, nucleolar condensation and fragmentation, and decreased nuclear volume lead to cell death via a process similar to karyorrhexis and karyolysis. Because this cell death is achieved through a progressive loss of cytoplasm due to self-morsellation, the authors named this mode of cell death autoschizis (from the Greek autos, self, and schizein, to split, as defined in Scanning. 1998; 20: 564-575). This morphological characterization of autoschizic cell death confirms and extends the authors previous reports and demonstrates that this cell death is distinct from apoptosis.