Chromatolysis - History

History

In 1885, researcher Walther Flemming described dying cells in degenerating mammalian ovarian follicles. The cells showed variable stages of pyknotic chromatin. These stages included chromatin condensation, which Flemming described as "half-moon" shaped and appearing as "chromatin balls," or structures resembling large, smooth, and round electron-dense chromatin masses. Other stages included cell fractionation into smaller bodies. Flemming named this degenerative process "chromatolysis" to describe the gradual disintegration of nuclear components. The process he described now fits with the relatively new term, apoptosis, to describe cell death.

Around the same time of Flemming's research, chromatolysis was also studied in the lactating mammary glands and in breast cancer cells. From observing the regression of ovarian follicles in mammals, it was argued that a necessary cellular process existed to counterbalance the proliferation of cells by mitosis. At this time, chromatolysis was proposed to play a major role in this physiological process. Chromatolysis was also thought to be responsible for necessary cell elimination in various organs during development. Again, these expanded definitions of chromatolysis are consistent with what we now term apoptosis.

In 1952, research further supported the role of chromatolysis in changing the physiology of cells during cell death processes in embryo development. It was also observed that the integrity of mitochondria is maintained during chromatolysis.

By the 1970s, the conserved structural features of chromatolysis were identified. The consistent features of chromatolysis included the condensation of the cytoplasm and chromatin, cell shrinkage, formation of "chromatin balls," intact normal organelles, and fragmentation of cells observed by the budding of fragments enclosed in the cell membrane. These budding fragments were termed "apoptotic bodies," thus coining the name "apoptosis" to describe this form of cell death. The authors of these studies, most likely unfamiliar with older publications on chromatolysis, were essentially describing apoptosis as a process identical to chromatolysis.