Altered Cell Biology Flashcards
Almost all the compensation that is going to occur in the body is going to happen at what level?
The cellular level
When does compensation become counterproductive?
In a lot of disease states.
Increase in the size, not the number is?
Hypertrophy.
Where do we see hypertrophy? Why don’t we see hyperplasia here?
Heart, brain and Skeletal Muscle. We don’t see hyperplasia because we don’t get more cells in these areas.
Increase in cell number, all the same size?
Hyperplasia
One normal epithelial cell converting to another normal epithelial cell type is termed?
Metaplasia
Is the resulting normal cell type in metaplasia normal for that area? Name an example.
No. Smoking-the normal columnar epithelial cells of the bronchi and bronchioles will convert to stratified squamous even though it is not normal there.
New growth? Is it necessarily cancer?
Neoplasia. No, may or may not be cancer. Cancers are almost always dysplastic tissue and they are almost always neoplasias.
Do we grow new cardiac myocytes?
No
How does the heart get stronger because the cells themselves are getting bigger or because we are gaining new cells?
Cells themselves are getting stronger and bigger.
What causes hypertrophy in the heart?
Increased PVR.
Body is stingy and is only going to adapt to what it needs to adapt too. The heart is the same way. If it has to work harder it will get stronger. If it doesn’t have to work harder it will get weaker.
What is the difference between a power athlete that has hypertrophy in his heart and someone with AS?
The power athlete is only going to work a certain amount of hours per day but if someone has AS that is a 24 hour per day deal and the heart never gets the ability to rest. The heart does like to rest. It always has to beat but it doesn’t always have to beat so hard.
What kind of cell type do bronchi and bronchioles normally look like?
pseudostratified columnar epithelium
Why are the cells in the bronchi and bronchioles tall?
Because they have a lot of mitochondria.
Why do the bronchi and bronchioles have a lot of mitochondria?
Because they have the cilia that are constantly moving gunk out of our lungs. So the ciliated columnar epithelium works great to keep our lungs nice and clean.
After smoking normal bronchiole tissue converts to what? What kind of compensation is this? What happens if the person quits smoking?
Stratified squamous.
Long term compensation
The stratified squamous would convert back into the pseudostratified ciliated columnar.
If a person continues smoking after the cells have converted to stratified squamous what could happen? Will this tissue convert back? What could happen if we pick up a couple more mutation?
The cells could become dysplastic. Generally, this type of tissue is not going to convert back to what it was. Unless, all the dysplastic tissue was to die and leave only the stratified squamous. Dysplasia is not cancer yet, but they have picked up a couple of mutations to be dysplastic. If they pick up a couple more mutations then it could become cancerous.
An abnormal form of cells is known as? Give an example.
Dysplasia. Warts.
A term for new abnormal disorganized growth is?
Neoplasia, also known as a tumor, may or may not be cancer.
Cancers are almost always which kind of tissue?
Dysplastic and neoplastic.
Name two other characteristics of cancer cells?
They invade and metastasize.
For the most part, are we able to regenerate cardiac myocytes? What implication does this have on how the heart gets stronger?
- No.
- If the heart gets stronger it’s because the cells themselves are getting bigger and stronger not because we are gaining more cells.
Name three reasons why a heart may become hypertrophic?
- increased PVR
- Aortic Stenosis
- In a power athlete
(These are just the three general ones he mentioned.)
What is the key difference between a person with aortic stenosis and the power athlete when it comes to hypertrophy of the heart?
The power athlete is only going to be working a certain amount of hours per day but if someone has aortic stenosis that’s all day every day and the heart never gets the ability to rest. The heart likes to rest.
What is the normal cell type of the bronchi and bronchioles?
cilated pseudostratified columnar epithelium.
Why are the pseudostratified columnar epithelial cells of the bronchi and bronchioles so tall?
Because they have lots of mitochondria.
Why does the pseudostratified columnar epithelial cells of the bronchi and bronchioles have so many mitochondria?
Because of the cilia that are constantly moving gunk out of our lungs.
As a long term compensation for smoking the normal ciliated pseudostratified columnar epithelial cells of the bronchi and bronchioles can be converted into what cell type? What is this change called and why?
- Stratified squamous.
- Metaplasia because it is the change of one normal cell type to another normal cell type just not normal for the lungs.
(we normally find stratified squamous in the esophagus)
If a person, who’s bronchi and bronchiole cells have converted to stratified squamous as long term compensation, quits smoking will this reverse?
Yes, the stratified squamous can convert back into the normal ciliated psuedostratifed columnar epithelium.
If a person, who’s bronchi and bronchiole cells have converted to stratified squamous as long term compensation, continues to smoke what is the likely result?
At some point the cells will become dysplastic (abnormal cells that are not necessarily cancer)
Once a person who has smoked to the point of turning the cells of their bronchi and bronchioles into dysplastic tissue, will this reverse if the person quits smoking?
Not likely. Dysplastic tissue is generally not going to convert back to what it was. The only way this would happen would be if all the dysplastic cells were to die and leave behind only the good cells. So yeah, that’s a no.
Dysplasia is not cancer yet, but a person who smokes with dysplastic cells has picked up a couple mutations just to become dysplastic. What does it take for these dysplastic cells to become cancer?
If the person picks up a couple more mutations then it could become cancerous.
When we have a cell and there is some insult a reversible cell injury can occur which could result in the cell returning to being normal or more than likely the cell will become?
Adapted- a little bit bigger or a little bit stronger
In an irreversible cell injury the cell just?
Dies
You could cut off blood supply to the heart and as long as it is returned back to the cell before the cell dies then the cell would?
Become stronger and more resistant to hypoxia.
If you continued to cut off blood supply to the heart but wait too long and the cell suffers and irreversible injury then?
The cell just dies and in the case of the heart it’s not coming back.
What is the biggest cause of cell injury?
ATP depletion.
When we think about ATP depletion what are we really thinking of?
Ischemia
Why do we think of ischemia in an ATP depletion type of cell injury?
If we cut off the blood flow we are not getting any new oxygenated blood. The blood sitting around the cell isn’t moving. The cell uses up the oxygen of the blood. The oxygen content of the local blood falls and then we have an oxygen deficiency which decreases the rate of ATP production in the mitochondria so now we have greatly decreased ATP.
If we lose the ability to use ATP what huge problem will we run into?
Lack of ATP prevents function of the Na/K ATPase pump. So we lose the ability to pump sodium out and potassium in.
Which causes the bigger problem, not being able to pump potassium in or not being able to pump sodium out? Why
- Not being able to pump sodium out.
2. We lose our sodium gradient.
Why is it so important to maintain our sodium gradient?
Because with the gradient sodium wants to come back into the cell but the deal is if sodium comes back into the cell it has to bring somebody else with it or pump somebody out. So if we lose our sodium gradient we also lose our secondary active transport. Now we can’t move other things around, in particular Calcium.
If potassium leaves the cell through leak channels and we cant pump it back in resulting in an increased extracellular potassium concentration we risk the possibility of all kinds of bad things happening because of what?
Because the of the nerst potential of potassium which in most cases largely sets the resting membrane potential for most cells. As potassium levels increase outside the cell the resting membrane potential will depolarize and to quote Garman “ a permanently depolarized cell is not a happy cell”
What type of cell injury is particularly problematic with reperfusion? Why?
- Free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS).
- Causes oxidation of membranes and other structures.
(Oxygen likes to be reactive oxygen species, you’ve got to restore the blood flow when it’s been cut off or the cell is going to die but when you restore the blood flow all of that incoming oxygen is going to greatly increase the oxygen reactive species in cells or in tissue that has already been partially damaged which is problematic).
A normal increase in intracellular Calcium is normally a signal for the cell to do what?
Whatever it does best.
The normal intracellular concentration of Calcium is what (generally not specific number)?
Really really really low- micromolar concentrations.
If a lot of calcium comes into the cell what does it signal the cell to do?
To die by apoptosis.
So back to the case of cell injury caused by ATP depletion. When we lose our sodium gradient we are prevented from running which pump pertinent to calcium that does what to it?
The sodium/Ca exchanger which requires ATP to pump calcium out of the cell.
In the case of a cardiac myocyte, if we can’t pump the calcium out what happens to the contraction of the cell? What does that do to our ATP concentration? Other than losing the pump are we getting Calcium into the cell from anywhere else? What other key thing will calcium do in the cell?
- We stay contracted longer.
- It decreases because of the extended contraction.
- Yes, Calcium is also being released from the mitochondria and smooth ER. (In the case of muscle cells the smooth ER is specifically adapted to be the sarcoplasmic reticulum to handle and hold calcium for contraction of the cell. We will end up releasing all of that calcium which will cause number 4.)
- Activate a ton of enzymes.
How do are defects in the plasma membrane caused? What does this defect lead too.
- Proteases and phospholipases break down the membrane.
- If the plasma membrane starts to leak sodium is going to pour in and we are completely going to lose the sodium gradient that we’ve had trouble maintaining. Calcium is going to flood in as a result and cause big problems.
Just name the four common themes in cell injury.
- ATP depletion
- Free radicals and ROS
- Increase in intracellular Ca
- Defects in the plasma membrane.
In an hypoxic injury induced by ischemia we are first going to have an obstruction or cessation of blood flow that leads to ischemia. What is the first thing that is going to happen which is a huge player in the cell injury? What results from this?
- First problem is the loss of oxygen.
2. The loss of oxygen is going to decrease our mitochondrial oxygenation so our ability to make ATP is going to fall.
When ATP falls in a normal cell what do we want the cell to do? How? How much ATP can we get during a state of ischemia?
- Make more.
- Increase glycolysis to get to the Kreb’s Cycle to get to oxidative phosphorylation under normal conditions.
- With glycolysis we get 2 ATPs if we don’t have oxygen.
When we make 2 ATP after glycolysis under ischemic conditions where oxidative phosphorylation isn’t possible what do we end up forming a lot of on the side? Why? What will end up binding to this side product? Resulting in what? Which could eventually lead to what?
- We end up forming a lot of H+
- Because under normal conditions, during oxidative phosphorylation, oxygen would react with this H+ to make H2O.
- They will bind to pyruvate.
- The production of lactic acid.
- Lactic acidosis and a decrease in pH
(Just remember that the pH is not the problem. Even if we correct the pH we are still not making ATP)
During an ischemic conditions is any new glucose coming into the cell? So then what do we do in our attempt to compensate for low ATP?
- No
2. We use all of the glucose that is there and then we are going to break down whatever glycogen is stored in that cell.
Do cardiac myocytes store a lot of glycogen? What about fat? Meaning what?
- No
- No.
- They need a constant influx of energy but whatever little they have they are going to break down.
If blood flow is restored during an ischemic cell injury, the local acidosis is washed away and everyone is happy. Unless, the pH gets low enough for us to see what two things?
- Nuclear chromatin clumping
2. Increased swelling of lysosomes.
During an hypoxic cell injury induced by ischemia, if we cannot compensate for the decrease in ATP by making more and lose the function of our sodium gradient because of sodium rushing in, what is going to follow sodium in? Causing what?
- Water.
2. Acute cellular swelling.