Cell Death Flashcards
A man has been diabetic with poorly controlled blood sugar for the past five years. Which of the following may be characteristic changes in his body organs as a result of the chronic illness?
A. Fatty liver
B. Atherosclerosis in blood vessels
C. Glycogen accumulation in hepatocytes
D. Carbon dust in the lungs
E. All of the above
A young lady walks into the clinic. She complains of black coloured urine. On examination, you notice black patches on her face. Which of the following may be implicated?
A. Melanin
B. Alkaptonuria/Homogentisic acid
C. Coal dust
D. Tatoo pigments in the urine
E. None of the above
48-year-old woman has a malignant lymphoma involving lymph nodes in the para-aortic region. She is treated with a chemotherapeutic agent which results in the loss of neoplastic cells through fragmentation of individual cell nuclei and cytoplasm.
Apoptosis
53-year-old man has had severe chest pain for the past 6 hours. Laboratory studies show a serum troponin I of 10 ng/mL. In this setting, an irreversible injury to myocardial fibers will have occurred when which of the following cellular changes occurs?
C Nuclei undergo karyorrhexis
A man is struck on the leg by a pallet rack.
Within 2 days there is a purple colour to the site of injury. Which of the following substances has 3/6 most likely accumulated at the site of injury to a yellow-brown colour within 16 days?
Hemosiderin
A 54-year-old man with a chronic cough has a lung squamous cell carcinoma. While performing a pneumonectomy, the hilar lymph nodes are small, and jet black in colour. Which of the following is the most likely cause for this appearance to the hilar nodes?
• A Anthracotic pigment
• B Lipochrome deposits
C Melanin accumulation
• D Hemosiderosis
• E Metastatic carcinoma
Anthracotic pigment
man with mild burning substernal pain following meals. Upper Gl endoscopy is performed and biopsies are taken of the lower oesophagus which show the presence of columnar epithelium with goblet cells
• A Dysplasia
• B Hyperplasia
• C Carcinoma
• D Ischemia
• E Metaplasia
Metaplasia
A woman suffers an acute myocardial infarction. tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is administered to restore coronary blood flow. In spite of this therapy, the extent of myocardial fiber injury may increase because
• A Cytoskeletal intermediate filament loss
B Decreased intracellular pH from anaerobic glycolysis
C Increased free radical formation
• D Mitochondrial swelling
• E Nuclear chromatin clumping
• F Reduced protein synthesis
Increased free radical formation
Two broad types of cell death
Necrosis
Apoptosis (may be physiologic i.e. seen in non-diseased cells)
Necrosis results from 2 major things
DIP
EDC
denaturation of intracellular proteins
and enzymatic digestion of the irreversibly injured cell.
The enzymes are released from 2 places
from the lysosome of index cell
lysosomes of adjacent white blood cells (inflammatory infiltrate)
The dying cell loses its membrane integrity and cellular contents spill into surrounding tissues causing _____________
Inflammation
Necrotic changes may take hours to be morphologically visible, however, certain chemicals released from the injured cell may be detectable in body fluids e.g. _________ & _______
Myocardial infarction enzymes (Troponins, creatinine kinase)
cardiac specific enzymes
Morphological classification of necrosis
CLGCFF
- Coagulative necrosis
- Liquefactive necrosis e.g. C.N.S.
- Gangrenous necrosis e.g. Foot gangrene
- Caseous necrosis e.g. TB
- Fat necrosis e.g. pancreatitis, breast
- Fibrinoid necrosis e.g. blood vessels
Coagulation necrosis is the most _____ type of necrosis caused by?
• Commonly seen in these 3 organs
Common
focal injury to a tissue e.g. as a result of impaired blood flow (ischaemia).
heart, spleen, kidney.
Morphology of coagulative necrosis grossly and microscopically
- Gross (plain eyesight): pale, slightly swollen area called INFARCT
- Microscopically, the cells retain their outlines, however the cytoplasmic and
nuclear details are lost aka ‘Tombstone’/’Ghost’ appearance
The affected cells are swollen and more EOSINOPHILIC than usual.
In coagulative necrosis, cell liquefaction occurs, debris are cleared off by WBCs
T/F
False
Cell liquefaction FAILS to occur
Liquefaction necrosis can be caused by 3 things
Also caused by ischaemic injury
bacterial infection
fungal infections
•
The ____ _____ _____ play a dominant role in the digestion of the affected cells creating a _____ material.
cellular hydrolytic enzymes
semi-fluid
Examples of liquefaction necrosis are
brain infarcts (CVA/”stroke”) (cerebral vascular accident)
abscess cavities.
2 Characteristics of caseous necrosis
• Cheese-like
• Characteristically found in Tuberculous infections.
Morphology of caseous necrosis
Gross & microscopic
Grossly: soft, granular, yellowish.
Microscopically: characteristic granuloma (epithelioid cells, giant cells and
peripheral cuff of lymphocytes) with central area of necrosis
______ necrosis is not a distinctive pattern of cell death
Gangrenous
When bacteria infection is superimposed with gangrene the morphologic appearance changes to _____ necrosis because of the destructive contents of the bacteria and the attracted leukocytes resulting in so-called _______
Liquefaction
wet gangrene”