Ischemic cell death, or Oncosis, is a form of accidental, or passive cell death that is often considered a lethal cell injury. The process is characterized by mitochondrial swelling, cytoplasm vacuolization, and swelling of the nucleus and cytoplasm. Oncosis technically refers to what follows a complete ischemia or toxin overdose, and is divided into three stages. Stage one is categorized by a cell swelling due to a selective cell membrane injury, stage two by a loss of reversibility of this process and non-selective permeability increase in the cell membrane, also known as blebbing, and stage three by the necrotic severance of the cell membrane.
Etymology
Although ischemic cell death is the accepted name of the process, the alternative name of oncosis was introduced as the process involves the affected cell(s) swelling to an abnormally large size in known models. This is thought to be caused by failure of the plasma membrane's ionic pumps. The name oncosis (derived from ónkos, meaning largeness, and ónkosis, meaning swelling) was first introduced in 1910 by pathologist Friedrich Daniel von Recklinghausen.