TUNEL Assay on Skeletal Tissue Sections to Detect Cell Death

At least two distinct modalities of cell death, apoptosis and necrosis, can be distinguished based on differences in morphological, biochemical, and molecular changes of dying cells [1 , 2 ]. Cell death is involved both in physiological and pathological conditions of the skeleton: for example, apoptosis is a crucial event during limb development. Therefore, detection of cell death by using a simple stain is a powerful tool to study molecular and cellular mechanisms of skeletal development and repair [3 ].