L8 - Biology of Stem Cells, Ageing and Cancer Flashcards
What are the two different types of ageing?
Not only related to old age
Post-embryonic development – growth
What is patterning?
Patterning - small scale followed by growth
Cell patterning events, e.g. action of morphogens, function over a limited range
The final shape and size of an organism is determined by?
Growth
Growth can occur in which 3 ways?
Proliferation Cell enlargement - Cardiac hypertrophy - Skeletal muscle Accretion - Bone - ECM is laid down outside the cell
What are the 5 phases of the cell cycle?
G1 - cell enlarges S - DNA is replicated G2 - together G1, S and G2 phase = interphase M - cell divides G0 – resting phase
What is the cell cycle driven by?
Cyclins which activate CDKs
These in turn control proteins that trigger events of each phase
Cyclins fluctuate in concentration
At what stage of the cell cycle are fully differentiated cells found?
Usually in G0 and do not proliferate
How is cell division in Drosophila intrinsically controlled?
Drosophila initially develops as a syncytium – single cell with multiple nuclei
- Nuclei go through rapid synchronous cell cycles - only S and M phases
- At 14th cycle the cycle slows and G2 phase introduced
- Nuclei migrate to periphery and get surrounded by involuting cell membrane - cellularization
- Depending on its precise position, each cell will acquire its own cell division rate
- Groups of cells with similar fates will show similar division cycles - mitotic domains - Cell division in these domains is controlled by a protein – String
What is string?
Phosphatase that activates CDKs
During first 13 divisions uniformly distributed maternally-supplied string
After 13th division zygotically expressed string produced under control of patterning genes
Why is mesoderm one of the first domains to express string but 10th domain to divide?
Due to a protein call tribble - an inhibitor of string
- Tribble is induced by mesoderm inducing genes
- Functions to promote invagination by preventing cell division at inappropriate times
What are mitotic domains controlled by?
String expression
PO4-ase
Activate CDKs
What is string controlled by?
Patterning genes - Gap, Pair rule, segment polarity
What does control of growth depend on?
The organ
What is the difference between thymus intrinsic and spleen systemic?
Thymus intrinsic
- If additional thymus glands are transplanted all organs maintain their size
- Multiple amounts of tissue will be present
Spleen systemic
- If additional spleens are transplanted both spleens will only grow to half the size
- Total amount of tissue remains the same
In animals what is growth dependent on?
Absolute dimensions, not cell number is important
Ploidy affects cell size but not overall size of an animal
Dependent on morphogens, not growth factors –> steepness of morphogen gradients
What happens if limb bud is transplanted between two species of newt embryos
Intrinsic growth characteristics maintained
What are the two growth control pathways?
TOR pathway –> cell size growth
Hippo pathway –> limit organ size
What happens when the Hippo pathway is inactive?
Yki/Yap/Taz in the nucleus stimulating growth and survival of cells
Various factors lead to inactivation – mechanical stress, other signalling pathways
What happens when the Hippo pathway is active?
Yki/Yap/Taz excluded from nucleus
Various factors lead to activation - cell cell contact, cell polarization