The cleavage of DNA during apoptosis, which usually occurs in two stages: cleavage into fragments of about 50 kbp followed by cleavage between nucleosomes to yield 200 bp fragments.

A programmed cell death process which begins when a cell receives an internal (e.g. DNA damage) or external signal (e.g. an extracellular death ligand), and proceeds through a series of biochemical events (signaling pathway phase) which trigger an execution phase. The execution phase is the last step of an apoptotic process, and is typically characterized by rounding-up of the cell, retraction of pseudopodes, reduction of cellular volume (pyknosis), chromatin condensation, nuclear fragmentation (karyorrhexis), plasma membrane blebbing and fragmentation of the cell into apoptotic bodies. When the execution phase is completed, the cell has died.

Any process that initiates the activity of the inactive enzyme cysteine-type endopeptidase in the context of an apoptotic process.

The attachment of a plasma membrane adhesion molecule in one cell to an identical molecule in an adjacent cell.

The morphological and physiological alterations undergone by mitochondria during apoptosis.

Any apoptotic process in a leukocyte, an achromatic cell of the myeloid or lymphoid lineages capable of ameboid movement, found in blood or other tissue.

The attachment of a B cell to another cell via adhesion molecules.

The component of the plasma membrane consisting of the gene products and protein complexes having at least some part of their peptide sequence embedded in the hydrophobic region of the membrane.