LCB2 Flashcards
What are the functions of the lymphatic system?
- Remove excess interstitial (tissue) fluid
- Immune defense
- Transportation of fats
What is lymphoedema?
Localised fluid retention within the tissues causing tissue swelling –> obstruction –> high risk of infection
How is lymph flow maintained?
- Contain valves
- Contraction of skeletal muscle and arteries
Where is lymph carried?
In circulatory system
What if the function of the thoracic duct?
- Drains lymph into left jugular vein or vena cava
- Collects lymph from left side of thorax and chyle cistern
- Largest duct
Where does chyle cisterna collect lymph from?
-The cistern drains the abdomen, hind limbs and the pelvic regions.
What is chyle?
- Lymph from the digestive system
- Contains CHYLOMICRONS (protein coated lipid droplets ) which drain into lymphatic capillaries in SI (lacteals)
What is the function of lacteals?
Return chyle to chyle cistern
What are the palpable lymph nodes in the dog?
-Submandibular, prescapular, popliteal, axillary (not always)
What are the palpable lymph nodes in the cow?
-Submandibular, prescapular, subiliac, mammary (if infected)
Describe the anatomy of the lymph node
- Medulla: contains macrophages and plasma cells
- Outer cortex (lymphatic follicle): follicles with B cells
- Deep cortex (paracortex): contains T cells (CD4 Th + CD8 cytotoxic)
- High endothelial venule: exit of lymphocytes into the blood
What is the lymph circulation in the lymph node?
Afferent lymphatic vessel –> capsule –> subscapsular sinus –> paratrabecular sinus –> medulla –> medullary sinus efferent lymphatic vessel
What is the cause of swollen lymph nodes?
- Infection
- Rapid cell turnover
- Inflammatory mediators
What is metastasis?
As flow through LN’s are slow cells from primary tumours enter the lymphatic and grow as secondary tumoours in the LN’s
What is the structure and function of the thymus?
- Primary lymphoid tissue: where lymphocytes are matured
- involved in positive and negative selection
- ruminants and pigs have 2 lobes: cervical and thoracic
- Cortex- contains T cells (where positive selection occurs )
- Medulla- contains macrophages (where negative selection occurs)
- Hassall’s corpuscles in the medulla
What is the structure and function of the spleen?
- Secondary lymphoid tissue
- White pulp- contains lymphocytes
- PALS (in white pulp): contain Th cells
- Splenic follicles (in white pulp): contain Bcells and macrophages
- Red pulp- filters and removes old and damaged RBC’s
- Haematopoeisis
What is the blood supply in the spleen?
Trabecular artery –> white pulp- central a. –> marginal sinus –> drain into red pulp vascular spaces –> splenic venules + veins –> hepatic portal vein –> liver
What is a primary lymphoid organ?
- involved in maturation of lymphocytes
- Bone marrow, thymus, Bursa of Fabricus, Peyer’s Patch, appendix (in rabbits)
What is a secondary lymphoid organ?
- Where lymphocytes are activated + proliferated
- Spleen, LN’s, MALT
What is positive selection?
- Process where T cells are equipped with correct receptors to identify self molecules MHC
- within the cortex of thymus
What is negative selection?
- Process where T cells that recognise MHC as non self are removed by macrophages
- In the medulla of thymus
Where is the follicle associated epithelium present and what is it specialised for?
- in Peyer’s Patch
- specialised for antigen uptake
What is the structure of lymph capillaries?
- lined by continuous single layered endothelium
- No valves
- Interstitual fluid enter via openings at intervals between adjacent endothelial cells
What is the structure of lymph vessels?
- Thinner walls than normal vessels
- More valves than normal vessels
What is the structure of the collecting ducts?
- Receives chyle from intestine
- Receives lymph from head and neck
- Opens into vena cava and left jugular
What is haemosiderophages?
retrieval of iron from erythrocyte breakdown
What is a sinusoid?
Small irregular shaped blood vessel
What are the roles of cell communication?
-movement, coordination of metabolism, coordination of growht/development, coordination of immune response
What are the 3 modes of cell communication?
- Contact dependent - gap junctions
- Synapse
- Autocrine, paracrine, endocrine
What are the advantages of contact dependent- gap junctions?
- can communicate via cytoplasmic bridges
- allows movement of ions, metabolites and complex molecules i.e. CAMP
What are the disadvantages of contact dependent- gap junctions?
- can only communicate with cells nearby
- relatively slow transmission
- transmission of deletion factors
What are the advantages of synaptic transmission?
- do not involve any changes in chemical concentrations
- communciation across short synaptic cleft- fast
- no dilutions
- system can be reactivated quickly
What are the disadvantages of synaptic transmission
- specificity
- hardwriting is expensive
- vulnerable
What is autocrine, paracrine and endocrine?
- autocrine: self signalling
- paracrine: cells nearby
- endocrine: cells distant
How does signalling come about?
Ligand binds to receptor on mebrane –> singal transduction –> effect
Where are the majority of cytokines formed and how do they cause a response?
- produced de novo
- stimulation –> signal –> transcription and translation of protein (Cytokine) –> repsonse within hours
Where are the minority of cytokines produced and how do they cause a repsonse?
- stored as precursors and released upon stimulation
- stimulation –> signal –> straight to precursor –> mature protein –> response within minutes
What are the functions of cytokines?
- immunity
- haematopoiesis
- embryogenesis
What are the nature of cytokines?
- Pleiotrophy of cytokines: a cytokine can have a different effect in different cells
- Redundancy of cytokines: 2 or more cytokines may have similar effects
- Synnergy of cytokines: combined effect of cytokines can be greater compared to just one
- Antagonism- one cytokines may inhibit the effect of another
- Cascade activation- 1 many induce a cascade of cytokine expression involving multiple cells
What are the different domains of cytokine receptors?
- Binding site
- Transmembrane domain
- signal domain : activates enzyme activity
What are the different types of receptors/domains?
- Single receptor with signal domain
- Receptor with accessory protein complex
- Receptor multioner complex
What are the different cytokine receptor families?
- immunoglobulin super family receptors
- chemokine receptors
- TNF receptors
- class I cytokine receptors
- class II cytokine receptors
Define neoplasia
Presence/formation of new, abnormal growth of tissue
Define tumour
Swelling part of body genereally without inflammation caused by abnormal growth (benign or malignant)
Define mutagenesis
Process by which genetic information of an organism is changed resulting in a mutation
Define oncogenesis
A gene which in certain circumstances can transform a cell into a tumour cell
What is a benign tumour?
- not cancerous
- can be removed
- does not spread to other parts of the body
What is a malignant tumour?
- cancerous
- spread to other tissues
- usually grow faster