General Pathology Flashcards
Main features of reversible cell injury (4)
Cellular swelling (hydropic change), blebbing of cell membrane, clumping of chromatin, fatty changes in hypoxic injury
Events in necrosis
Unprogrammed cell death
Lysozymes cause loss of membrane integrity and leakage of cellular contents –> digestion and denature proteins –> inflammation –> healing and repair (with architectural changes)
Microscopic changes in necrosis (6)
Nuclear: karyorrhexis, karyolysis, pyknosis
Cytoplasmic: eosinophilia, glassy homogenous
Necrotic cells disappear and replaced by myelin figures and then fatty acids
Coagulative Necrosis cause, tissue changes, complications (5)
Most common type
Wedge-shaped yellow area due to infarct (except of the brain)
Tissue architecture preserved
Gangrenous necrosis due to ischemia
Wet necrosis due to superimposed bacterial infection
Liquefactive Necrosis cause, manifestation (2)
Leukocyte enzymes digest tissue into liquid viscous e.g. in hypoxic brain injury
Formation of pus in acute inflammation –> abscess and cavitation
Caseous Necrosis cause, appearance (2)
Chronic granulomatous inflammation
Creamy-cheese appearance
Fat Necrosis causes, outcomes (2)
Fat digestion by lipase e.g. acute pancreatitis, breast trauma
Fatty acid combines with Ca2+ –> saponification (visible white chalky areas)
Fibrinoid Necrosis pathology (1)
Immune complex deposited in vessel wall (microscopic)
Apoptosis definition, features, mechanisms (2), physiological stimuli (3), pathological stimuli (3)
Programmed Cell Death through dedicated set of genes
No inflammation induced
Mitochondrial pathway (Bcl-2 pathway) and Death receptor pathway (TNF + FAS) –> cascade activation of DNA fragmentation
Physiologic: embryological development, withdrawal of hormones, death of immune cells (ageing, deletion of proliferative cell population)
Pathologic: DNA damage, misfolding of proteins, immune reactions
Apoptosis microscopic changes (3)
Shrinking cell, DNA fragmentation with formation of apoptotic bodies (that are engulfed by macrophages)
Autophagy
“Self-eating” as a survival mechanism during stress
Autophagic vacuoles –> autophagolysosome –> lysosomal enzyme digestion
Types of cellular adaptation and examples of each (4)
Hyperplasia – e.g. hormonal during pregnancy or puberty; BPH or endometrial
- controlled process, disappears once proliferative signals subside
Hypertrophy – e.g. muscle training, hormonal during pregnancy (gravid uterus or lactating breast); LVH
Metaplasia (increases risk of dysplasia but potentially reversible) – e.g. cervix transformation zone; Barrett’s oesophagus (squamous –> glandular) , Smoking (columnar –> squamous)
Atrophy – e.g. senile due to intracellular accumulation of lipofuscin; disuse muscle, denervating, pressure, ischemia, malnutrition
Pathways of intracellular accumulation (3)
Increased production/ decreased metabolism, genetic defect in metabolism, abnormal exogenous substance
Examples of intracellular accumulations (4)
Lipid –> TGs in fatty liver due to alcohol, DM, starvation; cholesterol esters e.g. atherosclerosis, xanthoma, cholesterolosis
Protein –> Reabsorption droplets in PCT in severe proteinuria, Russell bodies (excess Ig) in plasma cells, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
Glycogen –> glycogen storage diseases, mucopolysaccharidoses, gaucher (glucocerebrosidase deficiency)
Pigments –> carbon, lipofuscin (brown atrophy; repeated free radical injury), melanin, hemosiderin (from Hb, frequent blood transfusion, metabolic diseases)
Subcellular changes (4)
Intracellular accumulations, pathologic calcification, hyaline changes, fatty infiltration
Pathological calcification, appearance (1), types (2)
Basophilic deposits
Dystrophic: normal Ca2+, in necrotic or injured tissues e.g. atheroma, TB granuloma, damages valves
Metastatic: high Ca2+ (hyperPTH, Vit-D related disorders, CKD, bone destruction, sarcoidosis), at normal tissues
Hyaline Changes morphology (1), examples (2)
Homogenous, glassy pink material on H&E
Intracellular: Mallory Denk bodies, Russell Bodies
Extracellular: Hyalinised arteriosclerosis, amyloid in AD
Fatty infiltration associations (1), morphology (1)
Associated with myopathy
Tissue infiltrated and replaced with fat cells
Mechanism of acute inflammation (5)
- Increase in blood flow (vasodilation induced by cytokines and histamines) –> produce heat and erythema
- Increase vascular permeability due to contraction endothelial cells - short-lived - (mediated by cytokines) or by direct endothelial injury –> form exudate and cause swelling
1+2 –> decrease in local blood flow leading to stasis –> facilitating margination of leukocytes
- Neutrophil recruitment: margination –> rolling (selectin, low affinity) –> adhesion (beta integrin, high affinity) –> transmigration –> chemotaxis (along gradient of chemokine, complements, LTB4)
(6-24 hrs neutrophils; 24-48 hrs macrophages) - Neutrophil action at site of injury – phagocytosis (ROS and NO in phagolysosome)
Complement System pathways (3)
Complements are soluble proteins circulating in blood
Classical Pathway – Ag-Ab complex fixes C1
Lectin Pathway – MBL or Ficolins on microbes activate C1
Alternative Pathway – bacterial polysaccharides or other cell wall components trigger, involves properdin, factor B and D