1. ¹Department of Biology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China
2. ²Department of Biology, Iowa State University of Science and Technology, Ames, IA 50011, USA

Correspondence: Dr MC Fung, E-mail: mingchiufung@cuhk.edu.hk

Received 10 September 2008; Revised 29 October 2008; Accepted 4 November 2008; Published online 16 December 2008.

Abstract

Apoptosis is a cell suicide programme characterised by unique cellular events such as mitochondrial fragmentation and dysfunction, nuclear condensation, cytoplasmic shrinkage and activation of apoptotic protease caspases, and these serve as the noticeable apoptotic markers for the commitment of cell demise. Here, we show that, however, the characterised apoptotic dying cancer cells can regain their normal morphology and proliferate after removal of apoptotic inducers. In addition, we demonstrate that reversibility of apoptosis occurs in various cancer cell lines, and in different apoptotic stimuli. Our findings show that cancer cells can survive after initiation of apoptosis, thereby revealing an unexpected potential escape mechanism of cancer cells from chemotherapy.