Day 1- Lecture 2- Cell Injury Flashcards
Why might severe changes in the environment lead to physiological and morphological adaptations?
To attempt to remain viable- may increase or decrease level of activity
What does degree of cell damage depend on?
- Type of injury
- Duration of injury
- Severity of injury
- Type of tissue involved
What are the 7 causes of cell injury and death?
- Hypoxia (oxygen deprivation)- sensitivity to hypoxia/ischaemia varies between cell types e.g. Neurones only survive a few minutes without oxygen, but fibroblasts last a few hours
- Physical agents- e.g. Direct trauma, extremes of temperature (burns/severe cold), sudden changes in atmospheric pressure, electrical currents and radiation
- Chemical agents and drugs- glucose/salt in hypertonic solutions, oxygen in high concentrations, poisons, insecticides, herbicides, asbestos, alcohol, illicit drugs, therapeutic drugs
- Microorganisms- viruses, bacteria, fungi, other parasites
- Immune mechanisms
- Dietary insufficiency and deficiencies and dietary excess
- Genetic abnormalities
What are the mechanisms of cell injury-> the 4 components that are the principal targets for cell injury?
- Cell membranes
- Nucleus
- Proteins- structural proteins and enzymes
- Mitochondria
Describe reversible hypoxia injury
Leads to cell swelling, reduced cellular pH, disruption of protein synthesis
Process:
1-Ischaemia stops blood supply to a group of cells which are deprived on oxygen
2-Mitochondrial ATP production stops
3-Oxidative phosphorylation decreases so ATP decreases -> ATP driven ionic pumps are run down
4-Sodium, calcium and water enter cell
5-Glycolysis enables the cell to limp on for a while
6-The cell initiates heat shock stress response which will probably not be able to cope if hypoxia persists
7-The pH drops- increase in anaerobic respiration so the cells produce energy by glycolysis and lactic acid accumulates
8-Also… decreased protein synthesis so cannot make the proteins responsible to metabolism fats leading to lipid accumulation in the liver
Diagram in notes!
Describe the additional steps of prolonged hypoxia- irreversible hypoxic injury
It is irreversible as calcium activates lots of enzymes- it effects the cell membrane permeability, influx of calcium ions, activation and destruction of enzymes
9-Calcium enters the cell
10-Calcium activates
PHOSPHOLIPASES-> decreased phospholipids in cell membranes
PROTEASES-> damage cytoskeleton structures and attack membrane proteins
ATPASES-> reduce ATP
ENDONUCLEASES-> nuclear chromatin clumps (breakdown DNA)
11-ER and other organelles swell
12- Enzymes leak out of lysosomes and attack cytoplasmic components
13- All cell membranes are damages and start to show blebing
14- Cell dies -> possible killed by burst of bleb
What is ischaemia-repercussion injury? Name the 3 reasons why it may occur?
Blood flow is returned to a tissue which has been subject to ischaemia but is not yet necrotic- sometimes the tissue injury is worse than if the blood flow was not restored: DUE TO…
- Increased production of oxygen free radicals with reoxygenation
- Increased number of neutrophils following reinstatement of blood supplies, resulting in more inflammation and increased tissue injury
- Delivery of complement proteins and activation of the complement pathways
Chemical injury- what is cyanide toxicity?
Cyanide binds to mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase and blocks oxidative phosphorylation -> leads to histocytic anaemia
What are free radicals?
Reactive oxygen species with a single unpaired electron in an outer orbit- this is an unstable configuration, and because of this, free radicals react with other molecules, often producing further free radicals
How are free radicals produced?
- Chemical and radiation injury
- Ischaemia-reperfusion injury
- Cellular aging
- High oxygen concentrations
Can be due to:
- Normal metabolic reactions e.g. Oxidative phosphorylation (kept locked away in mitochondria)
- Inflammation- oxidative burst of neutrophils
- Radiation H20->OH.
- Contact with unbound metals within the body- iron and copper (free radical damage occurs in haemochromatosis (excess iron) and Wilson’s disease (excess copper))
- Drugs and chemicals e.g. In liver during metabolism of paracetamol or carbon tetrachloride by P450 system
How do free radicals injury cells?
- Attack lipids in cell membranes and cause lipid peroxidation
- Damage/oxidise proteins, carbohydrates and nucleic acids (molecules become bent/out of shape, broken or cross linked)
- Are mutagenic (so could be carcinogenic)
What 3 free radicals are of particular biological significance?
OH. (Hydroxyl- the most dangerous)
O2- (superoxide)
H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide)
What is the name given to the bodies defence system to prevent injury caused by free radicals?
Anti-oxidant system
When is a cell and tissue under oxidative stress?
When there is an imbalance between free radical production and free radical scavenging, leading to the build up of free radicals (oxidative imbalance when the free radicals overwhelms the anti-oxidant system)
How does the body control free radicals?
ENZYMES neutralise free radicals:
- Superoxide dismutase (SOD) catalyses the reaction of superoxide to H2O2 which is significantly less toxic to cells
- Catalase and peroxidases complete the process of free radical removal: H2O2 -> O2 + H2O
FREE RADICAL SCAVENGERS- anti-oxidant system, donate electrons to free radicals:
- Neutralise free radicals
- Examples: vitamins A, C, E and glutathione
METAL CARRIER AND STORAGE PROTEINS
- Sequester transition metals in the extracellular matrix
- Transferrin and ceruloplasmin sequester iron and copper which usually catalyse the formation of free radicals
How does the immune system damage the body’s cells?
- Hypersensitivity reactions- host tissue is injured secondary to an overly vigorous immune reaction
- Autoimmune reactions- immune system fails to distinguish self from non self e.g. Graves’ disease of the thyroid
Give some examples of heat shock proteins?
- Stress proteins
- Unfoldases
- Chaperonins
Example: ubiquitin
Are heat shock proteins only triggered by heat?
No, they are triggered by any form of injury
How are heat shock proteins used by cells to protect against the effects of injury?
When cell is under stress, they turn down their usual protein synthesis and turn up the synthesis of Heat Shock Proteins. They are important in cell injury as the heat shock response plays a key role in maintaining protein inability and hence maximising cell survival as they mend mis-folded proteins.
Process:
- Injury
- Produce HSP
- Bind to protein
- Guide through refolding/repair process
What are the 3 main alterations to cells you can see under a light microscope with cell injury, by cell death and swelling/oncosis which is typical from hypoxia?
CYTOPLASMIC- membrane not working as well, water enters cells and causes swelling and pale cytoplasm
NUCLEAR CHANGES
- Pyknosis: irreversible condensation of chromatin in a cell undergoing necrosis or apoptosis
- Karyorrhexis: destructive fragmentation of the nucleus in a dying cell where it’s chromatin is distributed throughout the cytoplasm
- Karyolysis: dissolution of cell nucleus- completely disappears
ABNORMAL INTRACELLULAR ACCUMULATIONS- proteins denatures and coagulated, clumped so picked up strongly by pink eosin stain
What alterations to cells can you see under an electron microscope during reversible cell injury?
- Swelling: both of the cell and the organelles (e.g. Mitochondria and ER) due to Na+/K+ pump failure
- Cytoplasmic blebs- symptomatic of cell swelling as cytoskeleton breaks down due to the proteases, so do not get the rods that hold the cells shape and the membrane becomes looser
- Clumped nuclear chromatin- due to reduced pH
- Ribosome separation from the endoplasmic reticulum due to the failure of energy-dependant process of maintaining ribosomes in the correct location
What alterations to cells can you see under an electron microscope during irreversible cell injury?
- Increased cell swelling
- Nuclear changes- pyknosis, karyolysis or karyorrhexis
- Swelling and rupture of lysosomes- reflects membrane damage
- Cell membrane defects
- The appearance of myelin figures (which are damaged membranes)
- Lysis of the endoplasmic reticulum due to membrane defects
- Amorphous densities in swollen mitochondria
What is oncosis?
Cell death with swelling, the spectrum of changes that occur prior to death in cells injured by hypoxia and some other agents
What is apoptosis?
Cell death with shrinkage, cell death induced by a regulated intracellular program where a cell activates enzymes that degrade its own nuclear DNA and proteins -> it is the death of a single cell or small cluster of cells, which can be a normal physiological process or it can occur when a cell is damaged, particularly when the damage affects the cell’s DNA (pathological)
What is necrosis?
In a living organism the MORPHOLOGIC changes that occur after a cell has been dead some time e.g. 4-24 hours. (Necrosis describes morphologic changes and is not a type of cell death i.e. It is an appearance and not a process)
When does necrosis occur and what happens?
- Nerosis is seen when there is damage to cell membranes (plasma and organelle) and lysosomal enzymes are released into the cytoplasm and digest the cell
- Cell contents leak out of cell and inflammation is often seen
- Necrotic changes develop over a number of hours (e.g. 4-12 hours before microscopic changes seen after MI)
- Eventually necrotic tissue is removed by enzymatic degradation and phagocytosis by white cells
- If some remains, and calcifies it is called dystrophic calcification