In recent five years,apoptosis and caspases are hot research topics by meat scientists.The degradation of cytoskeletal proteins mediated by caspase-3 was well known.However,the factors which influenced the process were still not very clear.In this paper,the postmortem activating pathways of caspase-3 were introduced;the changes of cellular environment in meat science were reviewed;compared with medicine science and cellular biology,the factors which affected the activation of caspase-3 potentially,for example the release of cytochrome C,the produce of ROS during hypoxia,the increase of cytosol calcium and the decrease of pH values and ATP content were analyzed.The work suggested some mechanisms on the changes of meat quality.