The nuclear pyknosis occurs as condensation of chromatin into many irregularly shaped, small clumps, sharply contrasting with the formation of few, uniformly dense and regularly shaped chromatin aggregates that occurs in apoptosis (compare Figs. 2 and 3). The nuclei of necrotic cells do not bud to form discrete, membranebound fragments, as in apoptosis. These differences in the condensation of nuclear chromatin in pure apoptosis and necrosis are very diagnostic. However, between these two extremes, the morphological variants of chromatin condensation are numerous (Fig. 4).