Whatever little energy supplies that remain within the cell have been directed to the molecular pumps along the membrane wall. If they shut down, the cell will be destroyed. But eventually there is simply no energy supply left at all. The pumps quit at last. Calcium ions from the lymph slip through the membrane's pores and begin to destroy the now-silent mitochondria. And water rushes in. The cell starts to swell, its membrane wall is stretched until it breaks, and the inner contents of the cell spill into the lymph. The cell has died(i58)

Apoptosis is a comparatively gentle form of death, quite different from the violence of necrotic cell death(i60)

What happens to the cells that made up the webbing? Or the cells that composed the fetus's tail, earlier in its gestation? They die(i61)

When a cell commits suicide, its DNA sends one final message to the organelles: the ribosomes, mitochondria, and lysosomes. Then the DNA starts to break up into tiny fragments, each too small to produce coherent instructions to the cell's machinery outside the nucleus(i62)

The fact that its central command system has been destroyed is not immediately noticed by the rest of the cell. There is always a stack of instructions from the nucleus piled up in the cytoplasm, waiting to be read, and the cell can continue to operate for quite some time after destruction of its DNA(sod34)

As a sign that a given cell has somehow been singled out for a fate different from its neighbors', the cell physically detaches itself from them. One by one it breaks the points of contact between its own plasma membrane and the membranes of surrounding cells, until it stands alone. And then the cell begins a slow dance of death; its membrane begins undulating to and fro. Portions of the plasma membrane surge out and then fold back on themselves. Small pieces of the cell begin to pinch away from the main cell body, and float idly in the currents of the surrounding lymph(sod35)

Apoptotic bodies are eaten quietly and efficiently by neighboring cells, not by professional undertakers. If a macrophage does happen by, it does not send out alarms to attract more of its kind to the scene. Nor does it stimulate nearby fibroblasts to lay down scar tissue(sod36)

Apoptotic bodies can actually be seen inside neighboring cells shortly after they have been eaten - still intact, still blithely carrying on their business unaware that anything is wrong. Only at the final moment, when they are shepherded into their new host's lysosomes for destruction, do they seem to realize something is seriously wrong(sod37)

Rescue messages are produced within the cell itself apparently to give the cell an opportunity to save itself, for example in the face of relatively minor damage to its DNA that may have triggered apoptosis. If the DNA can be repaired quickly, the cell may be allowed to live. But in the face of continued indications that the cell has been compromised-massive DNA damage, the prolonged absence of a required growth factor or constant bombardment with a message to commit suicide- the rescue message is drowned out, and the cell starts down the irreversible pathway of apoptosis(sod50)