Cellular injury, Cell death and Adaptations Flashcards
The normal cell:
○ Capable of handling physiologic demands ○ Maintains a steady state of homeostasis ○ Capable of adaptation ■ Reversible functional and structural responses to physiologic state ■ Pregnancy (Physiologic stress) ● The uterus will be stimulated to grow big and accommodate the baby
Cellular injury can be:
Reversible and Irreverisible
Reversible
We are able to identify the stress early into the cellular injury and the cell can go back to its normal state
Irreversible
Why does hypertension cause hypertrophy of myocytes?
In hypertension, there is an increase in workload. The myocyte needs to adapt. Since the myocyte is a permanent cell, it cannot divide or reproduce itself. The myocyte adapts in such a way that it could carry out the increased load. Hence, it hypertrophies
Appears as Enlarged heart
In AMI, there is decreased blood flow to the heart → decreased oxygenation → cells will be compromised. If this persists, it will involve more of the population of the myocytes → cell death
OXYGEN DEPRIVATION
● The major and important cause of cell injury
● Causes:
○ Reduced blood flow
○ Cardiorespiratory failure ○ Decreased oxygen-carrying capacity of blood
PHYSICAL AGENTS
● Mechanical trauma
● Extremes of temperature (burns and deep cold)
● Sudden changes in atmospheric pressure
● Radiation
● Electric shock
CHEMICAL AGENTS AND DRUGS
● Can create burns, skin irritation
● Drugs in abnormal dosage
○ Chemotherapeutic drugs are programmed to kill cells
INFECTIOUS AGENTS
IMMUNOLOGIC REACTIONS
● The immune system serves an essential function in defense against infectious pathogens, but immune reactions may also cause cell injury ● Injurious reactions to endogenous self-antigens are responsible for autoimmune diseases ● Allergic reactions
GENETIC ABNORMALITIES
● Deficiency of enzymes and proteins can produce toxic substances and can cause injury
NUTRITIONAL IMBALANCES
● Protein-calorie deficiency ● Vitamin Deficiency
THE PROGRESSION OF CELL INJURY AND CELL DEATH CURVE
● All stresses and noxious influences exert their effects first at the molecular or biochemical level ●
Biochemical alterations → Ultrastructural changes
● The early changes are subtle and are only detected with highly sensitive methods of examination
● With histochemical, ultrastructural, or biochemical techniques, changes may be seen minutes to hours after injury, whereas changes visible by light microscopy or the naked eye may take considerably longer (hours to days) to appear. As would be expected, the morphologic manifestations of necrosis take more time to develop than those of reversible damage
REVERSIBLE CELL INJURY
● A functional and structural alteration in early stages or mild forms of injury
● Features: ○ Generalized swelling of the cell and its organelles
■ Results from influx of water
■ This is usually caused by failure of the ATP-dependent Na-K plasma membrane pump due to depletion of ATP resulting from oxygen deficiency
○ Blebbing of the plasma membrane ○ Detachment of ribosomes ○ Clumping of nuclear chromatin
Explain the injury
● In the middle picture, there is early cellular injury
○ Swelling
■ Vacuoles on top of the cells or Hydropic changes or Vacuolar degeneration
○ Eosinophilia
■ Some of the cells are pinker than the others due to RNA loss
● In the last picture, the cell shows irreversible injury ○ Disintegration of the lining of the cells ○ Some cells do not have their nuclei ○ Vacuolations are bigger
Structural changes in Plasma membrane
Blebbing,
Blunting
Loss of Microvilli
Structural changes in Mitochondria
Swelling
Small densities
Myelin Figures in the Cytoplasm
Derived from phospholipids of damaged membranes
Dilation of ER Detachment of Polysomes
Nuclear Alterations
Disaggregation of granular and fibrillar elements
Electron Microscopy of Normal Cell
Electron micrograph of a normal cell ○ Several microvilli protruding in the apical surface ○ Organelles are arranged in an organized fashion
EM of Reversible injury
○ Presence of blebs ○ Loss of microvilli
Irreversible injury EM
○ Formation of vacuoles, blebs, and deposits ○ Enlargement of organelles (Swelling) ○ Disintegrated nucleus ○ Fragmentation of nucleus and organelles ○ Haphazard arrangement of organelles
Cell Death
Necrosis, apoptosis
NECROSIS
A pathologic process that is the consequence of severe injury
Causes of Necrosis
○ Ischemia ○ Exposure to microbial toxins ○ Burns and other forms of chemical and physical injury ○ Unusual situations in which active proteases leak out of the cells and damage surrounding tissues
Necrosis is characterized by
○ Denaturation of cellular proteins ○ Leakage of cellular contents through damaged membranes ○ Local inflammation ○ Enzymatic digestion
Some specific substances released from the injured cells have been called
damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs)
Cardiac specific troponins
detected in the blood as early as 2 hours after myocardial cell necrosis, bile duct epithelium expresses a specific isoform of the enzyme alkaline phosphatase and hepatocytes express transaminase (e.g. SGPT
Karyolysis
basophilia of the chromatin may fade; presumably reflects loss of DNA because of enzymatic degradation by endonucleases
Pyknosis
characterized by nuclear shrinkage and increased basophilia, chromatin condenses into a dense, shrunken basophilic mass (also seen in apoptotic cell death)
Karyorrhexis
pyknotic nucleus undergoes fragmentation
COAGULATIVE NECROSIS
● Architecture of dead tissue is preserved for a span of at least some days only with loss of Nuclei ● Affected tissue has a firm texture ● Injury denatures not only structural proteins but also enzymes and so blocks the proteolysis of the dead cells; as a result, intensely eosinophilic cells with indistinct or reddish nuclei may persist for days or weeks
The brain undergoes which type of necrosis in ischemia
Liquefactive
LIQUEFACTIVE NECROSIS
● Digestion of the dead cells, resulting in the transformation of the tissue in a viscous liquid
● Seen in focal bacterial or, occasionally, fungal infections
● Accumulation of leukocytes (predominantly neutrophils) and the liberation of enzymes from these cells known as pus
● Seen in ischemic death of brain cells
GANGRENOUS NECROSIS
● not a specific pattern of cell death, but the term is commonly used in clinical practice, usually applied to a limb ● When bacterial infection is superimposed giving rise to so-called wet gangrene
CASEOUS NECROSIS
● Encountered most often in foci of tuberculous infection
● Term caseous (cheeselike) is derived from the friable white appearance of the area of necrosis
Granuloma
Necrotic area appears as a structureless collection of fragmented or lysed cells and amorphous granular debris enclosed within a distinctive inflammatory border; this appearance is characteristic of a focus of inflammation
FAT NECROSIS
● Focal areas of fat destruction, typically resulting from release of activated pancreatic lipases into the substance of the pancreas and the peritoneal cavity ● Occurs in acute pancreatitis
Fatty acids released grossly appear as,
Chalky-white (Fat saponification)
FIBRINOID NECROSIS
● Special form of vascular damage usually seen in immune reactions involving blood vessels
● Occurs when complexes of antigens and antibodies are deposited in the walls of arteries called “fibrinoid” (fibrin-like)
APOPTOSIS
● Basically cell shrinkage or reduce size ● Induced by tightly regulated suicide program ● Cells are destined to die ● Activation of intrinsic enzymes to degrade the genomic DNA and nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins ● No inflammatory reaction ● Programmed cell death
PHYSIOLOGIC CAUSES OF APOPTOSIS
● Eliminates cells that are no longer needed ● Removal of supernumerary cells during development ● Involution of hormone-dependent tissues on hormone withdrawal ● Cell turnover in proliferating cell populations ● Elimination of potentially harmful self-reactive lymphocytes.
The pathway that is most involved in Physiologic and pathologic apoptosis
Mitochondria
PATHOLOGIC CAUSES OF APOPTOSIS