Morphological Features and The Treatment of Related Diseases of Ferroptosis

Ferroptosis is a kind of cell death triggered by the accumulation of iron-dependent lipid peroxidation products. Like apoptosis, necroptosis, it belongs to the regulated cell death. Numerous studies have shown that ferroptosis is linked to various diseases, such as cancer, neurodegenerative disease and stroke. Activation or inhibition of ferroptosis may play an important role in the treatment of related diseases. Regulating ferroptosis to intervene the occurrence and development of diseases has become a hotspot and focus of current research. Although people have made important discoveries in the molecular regulation of various cell death pathways, the differences in morphological characteristics have important practical significance for pathology departments to identify cell death types and guide the formulation of clinical treatment plans. As a new regulated form of cell death, ferroptosis has many different manifestations from other forms of cell death, among which cell morphological changes are markedly characterized. With the in-depth study of different cell death modes, further analysis and comparison of the morphological characteristics of different cell death forms, and exploration of their similarities and differences are of great significance for identifying cell death forms, judging the pathological process of diseases, and finding appropriate treatment options. This article focuses on the comparison of the morphological features of ferroptosis with other forms of cell death, such as apoptosis, necroptosis, autophagy and pyroptosis. The article shows that ferroptosis has the morphological characteristics of increased mitochondrial membrane densities, reduced or vanished mitochondria crista, rupture of outer mitochondrial membrane. It is obviously different from the morphological features of apoptosis (plasma membrane blebbing, cellular and nuclear volume reduction, mitochondria, Golgi and other organelles in cytoplasm condense, nuclear fragmentation, chromatin condensation and formed apoptotic bodies), autophagy (formation of double membraned autolysosomes), necroptosis (cells become round, swelling of the cytoplasm and organelles, moderate chromatin condensation and rupture of plasma membrane), and pyroptosis (cell edema and membrane rupture, karyopyknosis). We also highlight the involvement of ferroptosis in the major progression of stroke, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. This paper provides an important basis for the identification and diagnosis of different pathological features.