Mechanical stimulation affects the onset of cell apoptosis, thereby leads to the structural and functional changes of the tissues and organs. Such force-affected cell apoptosis plays an important role in physiological and pathological processes of organism and is closely related with occurrence and development of many diseases. In recent years, the mechanism of signal transduction affected by force-induced cell apoptosis has aroused more interests of researchers in the field of cellular mechanics, and experiment results at present stage showed that the form of mechanical stimulation, its intensity and the type of cells on which the mechanical stimulation applied would affect cell apoptosis with different process and results. During the process, the signal pathways, genes and protein expression related with cell apoptosis were quite complex and the specific mechanism of signal transduction still remain unclear. In this article, the recent advances on characteristics of cell apoptosis and its related signal pathways, as well as effects of different mechanical stimulations on cell apoptosis and its signal pathways were reviewed and discussed.