5.2 Adaptation and injury Flashcards


What are the two types of adaptation to injury?
- Physiological adaptation-cellular response to normal stimulation
- Hormones
- Endogenous chemicals
- Pathological adaptation-cellular response to stimulation secondary to underlying disease/ to avoid injury




What happens in hypertrophy?
- Increased work load (physiological and pathological stimuli)
- Increased size of cells resulting in increased size of organ
- No new cells, just larger cells
- Non-dividing cells increase in size (myocytes, skeletal muscle)

What are two examples of things which lead to hypertrophy?

What is hyperplasia?
- Increase in number of cells in an organ or tissue
- Only in cell populations capable of dividing
- Physiological and pathological response

What are examples of physiological and pathological cause of hyperplasia?
- Physiological
- Hormonal (puberty)
- Compensatory (liver resection)
- Increased demand (Low atmospheric O2 leads to increased erythrocytes)
- Pathological
- Hormonal (endometriosis)
- Viral infection (skin warts)
- Chronic stress (callous)

What is atrophy?
- Reduced size of organ resulting from decrease in cell size and number.
- Physiological atrophy is common during normal development (embryonic structures, uterus following pregnancy)
- Pathologic atrophy depends of the underlying cause.

What can cause atrophy?
- Decreased work load
- Immobilization
- Loss of innervation
- Loss of blood supply
- Inadequate nutrition
- Loss of endocrine stimulation
- Pressure
- Aging

What is metaplasia?
- Replacement of one differentiated cell type with another
- Cells sensitive to stress replaced by a cell type better able to withstand stress
- Stem cell reprogramming
- For example cigaratte smoking turns ciliated columnar to stratified squamous.
- Chronic gastric reflux turns stratified squamous to gastric columnar epithelial

What is the difference between adaptation and reversible and irreversible injury?
- Adaptation: A response to stress or increased demand that maintains the steady state of the cell without compromising cellular function.
- Reversible/ sublethal injury: A response to stress/ stimuli that compromises cellular function.
- Irreversible injury: A response to stress/ stimuli that compromises cellular function to the point that it cannot recover

What happens in reversible injury?
- Cell function compromised
- Recovery if injury is removed
- May compromise organ function
- Eg. Reversibly injured myocytes (transient ischemia) may be transiently non- contractile which will affect function of the heart
What happens in irreversible injury and cell death?
- When the cell cannot recover and it dies
- Two types of cell death which differ in morphology, cause and roles in disease
- Necrosis
- Apoptosis
- May have occurred before morphological changes become apparent

When does injury cause irreversible damage? What cell and injury factors

How is sequential development of changes seen in cell injury?
- Cells may be non- functional but viable
- Cells may undergo biochemical changes and be non-viable (dead) before the appearance of ultrastructural, microscopic and macroscopic changes are apparent.

What is the haemotoxylin stain?
- It is used to stain acidic (or basophilic) structures a purplish blue.
- Stains nucleic acids (DNA in nucleus, RNA in ribosomes and RER)

What is the eosin stain?
- It stains basic (or acidophilic) structures red or pink (also sometimes termed ‘eosinophilic’)
- Most proteins

What morpholigcal features of injury can be seen with a light microscope?

What morphological features of reversible injury can be seen in the ultrastructure?

When does irreversible injury occur?
- Occurs when mitochondrial dysfunction can’t be reversed and when membranes lose their structural integrity
What membrane changes are seen in irreversible injury?
- Lysosomal membranes
- Contents leak into cell
- Nuclear and cytoplasmic components degraded
- Plasma membrane
- Loss of osmotic balance
- Cellular contents leak into extracellular space (inflammation)
- Mitochondrial membrane
What are the six mechanisms of cell injury?













