Recent experiments have shown that an ischemic insult can induce both necrosis and apoptosis. A series of experiments were designed to examine the potential induction of apoptosis by oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) in cerebellar granule cell culture. A medium OGD (90 min) induced apoptosis in cell culture, with maximal effect 12 h after exposure, as indicated by following morphological (TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end-labeling) and biochemical markers (DNA oligonucleosomal fragmentation). Mitochondrial injury (MTT assay) was among the early effects we detected during and after OGD and it was correlated with the dynamics of TUNEL positive cells. The amount of LDH release from damaged cells, associated with necrosis was increased significantly 12 h after exposure. These results indicate that medium OGD induced a rapid (<12 h) mixture of apoptosis and necrosis, followed by mainly secondary necrosis.