The purpose of this master thesis was to find out if the morphological changes due to apoptosis in ferroptosis that we can observe with scanning electron microscope (SEM) are significantly different from eachother, which would show that we can use SEM as a method to differentiate between apoptosis in ferroptosis. Furthermore, we wanted to know if SPIONs cause a type of cell death that is morphologically and molecularly similar to ferroptosis. HUVEC cells were treated with inductor of apoptosis, staurosporin and inductor of ferroptosis, RSL. We also treated cells with SPIONs so we could determine what type of cell death they induced. We tested cells for cytotoxicity, AChE specific activity, lipid peroxidation and apoptosis. Treated cells were observed with SEM to describe morphological characteristics of their surface. AChE has not proven as a biomarker for a specific type of cell death. Biomarker for ferroptosis, lipid peroxidation, was, on the contrary, elevated in cells, treated with RSL3 and SPIONs. Test for apoptosis was not specific enough for differentiation between different cell deaths. Staurosporin induced morphological characteristics were specific for apoptosis, cells, treated with RSL on the other hand, were exhibiting morphological characteristic previously not described in the literature. Cells, treated with SPIONs, also had a unique morphology, not typical for apoptosis or ferroptosis
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