2- Mechanisms of Disease I: Cell growth and cell differentiation Flashcards
Mechanism that turns zygote into mature multicellular organism?
- Cell growth = bigger organism, more cells
2. Differentiation = cells become complex, (usually an end to growth)
State the 3 main groups of diseases related to cell growth and differentiation
- Developmental conditions
Can be related to cell growth or differentiation (or both)
E.g. Neural tube defects like spina bifida - Neoplasia (and metaplasia)
E.g. cancer, tumours - Others, e.g. cardiac hypertrophy
What are the 2 main forms of cell growth?
Hypertrophy
Hyperplasia
What is cell growth balanced by?
cell death
What is hypertrophy?
Increase in cell size
More proteins, more membrane etc
Elevated protein synthesis is a big driver of increased cell size
What is hyperplasia?
Increase in cell numbers
-caused by cell division/ proliferation
What are 3 examples of when apoptosis happens during development?
→ Separation of digits
→ involution
→Immune and nervous system development
What are growth factors?
→ Proteins that Stimulate proliferation (mitogens) and promote survival
e.g. Growth factors and interleukins (EGF, FGF, NGF, PDGF, IGF1, IL2, IL4)
What is the function of TGFβ ?
→ Stimulates differentiation and inhibits proliferation
What is the function of the TNFα family?
→ Induce apoptosis
What are the three broad classes of growth factors?
→ Paracrine
→ Autocrine
→ Endocrine
What is paracrine?
→ produced locally to stimulate proliferation of a different cell type that has the appropriate surface receptor
What is autocrine?
→ produced by a cell that also expresses the appropriate cell surface receptor
What is endocrine?
→ like conventional hormones and released systematically for distant effects
What is the function of Wnt Ligands?
→ can inhibit or promote cell growth depending on context
What are the characteristics of terminally differentiated cells?
→ post-mitotic
→ exit from cell cycle
→ elicit a specific tissue type gene expression
→ cell morphology and function changes
What is common between cell growth and differentiation?
→ The mechanisms governing them
→ governed by the integration of multiple signals intra- and extracellular signals (checks on cellular physiology, growth and inhibitory factors, cell adhesion etc.)
→ Signals converge on the promoters of key genes
Promoters act as “co-incidence detectors”
Express gene YES/NO? How much?
How do extracellular signals induce gene expression?
Growth factor binding to its receptor
Activating signalling transduction pathway via kinase cascade
Activate transcription factors in the nucleus
Transcription factors drive expression of downstream genes
Creating a mRNA – exported back to cytoplasm – where protein synthesis happens
Proteins made can remain in cytoplasm or they can be membrane proteins going back to membrane
Or can be transcription factors or other nuclear proteins that return to nucleus and drive expression of further downstream genes
What happens during the M phase?
→ Separation of chromosomes
What happens to daughter cells after mitosis?
→ undergoes interphase and it grows in size, synthesises macromolecules
→ leave the cell cycle- becomes quiescent and is terminally differentiated (G0)
What happens to quiescent cells?
→ can remain in G0 indefinitely
→ can rejoin cell cycle- some stimulus will make them proliferate again
→ can begin a process towards differentiation- terminally differentiated and will be considered post mitotic cells
How many copies of each chromosome do you have in G1 and S phase?
2
How many copies of each chromosomes do you have in G2 and M phase?
4