Understanding the role of lipid droplets in regulated cell death

The dogma that apoptosis is the sole form of cell death involved in eliminating supernumerary cells during development and pathology has been challenged by the discovery that necrotic cell death, previously considered accidental, can also be genetically controlled. It is now widely accepted that programmed necrosis plays a role in regulating cell homeostasis during differentiation. For instance, programmed necrosis is involved in the elimination of germ cells during Drosophila spermatogenesis (Napoletano, 2017). To study the kinetics of programmed necrosis, we identified novel testes-specific markers, including the release of nuclear proteins and lipid droplet (LD) accumulation in dying germ cells.