Apoptosis	Necrosis
Physiological or pathological	Always pathological
Single cells	Sheets of cells
Energy dependent	Energy independent
Cell shrinkage	Cell swelling
Membrane integrity maintained	Membrane integrity lost
Role for mitochondria and cytochrome C	No role for mitochondria
No leak of lysosomal enzymes	Leak of lysosomal enzymes
Characteristic nuclear changes	Nuclei lost
Apoptotic bodies form	Do not form
DNA cleavage	No DNA cleavage
Activation of specific proteases	No activation
Regulatable process	Not regulated
Evolutionarily conserved	Not conserved
Dead cells ingested by neighbouring cells	Dead cells ingested by neutrophils and macrophages