Med 1001 Flashcards
What is an organelle and what are the types of organelles?
the internal components of a cell which carry out specific metabolic tasks. there’s membranous and non membranous
What are membranes within a cell usually made of and why is this material used?
phospholipids. they have a non polar tail and polar head so they are ampipathic, meaning they interact with both water and lipids.
How are membranes generally formed?
phospholipids in solution will self associate, forming a bilayer where hydrophobic tail comes faces inwards and polar head faces outwards
What is a vesicle?
A bubble which has a membrane formed from phospholipid bilayer, might have stuff in it
What is the difference when we say a cell is anuclear or multinucleate?
Anuclear means no nucleus, multinucleate means multiple nuclei
What is the function of the nucleus?
The nucleus stores our genes in the form of DNA within chromatin
Where are ribosomes produced?
In the nucleus, there are nucleoli comprised of masses of DNA, RNA and/or proteins
What is something that the nucleus shares with the mitochondria and describe it’s role in the nucleus’ operations
A double membrane
Regulates molecular traffic in and out of the nucleus (pores as well). For stuff to get out of the nucleus, there’s these nuclear pores which are dotted around the nucleus which are formed by rings of protein. The outer nuclear membrane ends up becoming the rough endoplasmic reticulum.
What is the purpose of ribosomes?
Production of proteins
Where can ribosomes be found?
Floating in the cytoplasm, on membranes (RER, nuclear membrane) or within other organelles (nucleus, mitochondria
How do ribosomes achieve their purpose
They ‘read’ coded genetic messages in the form of messenger RNA, and start building amino acids in a specific order to produce a protein. This is called translation. The proteins are then released in vesicles
What is the endoplasmic reticulum?
A system of channels covered by a membrane
What is the difference between rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum structurally?
Rough ER has ribosomes on it, while smooth doesn’t
What is the purpose of the rough endoplasmic reticulum?
Production of phospholipids and proteins for plasma membrane
Makes proteins via ribosomes
What is the function of the smooth endoplasmic reticulum?
Synthesis fats, lipids and steroid hormones
Begins to detoxify alcohol and other drugs
In muscular cells, acts as a store of calcium
What is the function of the Golgi apparatus?
The golgi apparatus modifies proteins by attaching sugar or sulfate groups on proteins, making it more water soluble.
What is endocytosis and what are the types of endocytosis?
When the cell takes stuff into it
Can be phagocytosis, when big stuff is taken in
Can be pinocytosis, when small stuff is taken in
What is exocytosis and what forms can it take?
Stuff is taken out of the cell
Constitutive (stuff is just taken out almost randomly)
Regulated (there’s a structure and system to releasing)
What is the cytoskeleton?
It’s a network of protein filaments which can grow and shrink to determine cell shape and size. It allows for exo and endocytosis
What are the components of the cytoskeleton?
Microfilaments (made of actin) (smallest): Contribute to cell shape and movement.
Intermediate filaments: Provide mechanical strength, they hold up the cell
Microtubules (made of tubulin) (biggest): Help with intracellular transport, determine position of organelles and play role in cell shape and cell division
How are vesicles transported around the cell?
motor proteins attach themselves to the protein filaments and the vesicle and move along the filaments when ATP attaches to it, dragging the vesicle with it
What is the function of a lysosome and peroxisome?
To protect the cell from foreign bodies and/or defective bodies
How do peroxisomes achieve their purpose?
- They use hydrogen peroxide to oxidize them, breaking them down
- They break down toxins such as alcohol and free radicals
- They also break down fatty acids into acetyl groups to be used in mitochondria
- They have a membrane to prevent hydrogen peroxide from getting out
How do lysosomes carry out their function?
Lysosomes are membrane bound and contain enzymes which are used to break down organelles, proteins, nucleic acids etc.
As enzymes are used, only work on specific things as specific reaction
What are proteasomes and what is their function?
Proteasomes are membrane bound organelles which recycle proteins.
- Cell marks damaged or old protein with ubiquitin
- Proteasome takes these marked proteins and breaks them down to amino acids
What are autophagosomes and what is their function? Also what’s unique about them?
Autophagosomes are membrane bound organelles which recycle other organelles.
- They form a membrane around an organelle, surrounding it and they fuse with a lysosome where using the enzymes, the organelle is broken down into usable parts for the cell
- What’s special about them is that they pop up when needed, don’t exist all the time
What is the function of the mitochondria?
- Produce ATP or energy for the cell
- Respiration occurs within the mitochondria too
Describe the overall structure of the mitochondria
It has a double membrane
- Outer membrane is for security
- Inner membrane has folds called cristae
- The space between the cristae is called the matrix
- Within the matrix is a bunch of stuff like ribosomes and enzymes used for ATP production
- Also, ATP synthesis happens at sites in the mitochondria called ATP synthases
What is the difference between prokaryote cells and eukaryote cells?
- Prokaryotes don’t have a nucleus and don’t have membrane bound organelles
- Eukaryotes have a nucleus and membrane bound organelles
What size is a human cell?
30 to 50 microns (30 to 50*10^-6
Why is the size of a cell so important for survival?
- Cells float around in extracellular fluid
- Any nutrients a cell needs come from this ECF (fats, sugars etc.)
- To maximise how much stuff it takes in, we want to maximise surface area
- As you increase the size of a cell, it’s volume increases and it needs more nutrients hence a larger surface area
- However, as you increase the volume of something, it’s surface area decreases, so the surface area to volume ratio decreases
- This means the cell cannot function properly past a certain size
Why is SA:V ratio important in regards to cells?
- If the volume increases, so does the amount of cytoplasm hence the cell needs more nutrients
- A larger surface area means the cell can absorb more nutrients at a greater rate
- We need to maintain this surface area to allow the exchange of nutrients, ions, waste and gases
When cells differentiate, why is it known as a trade off?
- The cells which they differentiate from can’t perform super specific and complex tasks but they can remain alive on their own, they can perform metabolic processes on their own
- However, specialised cells such as cardiac cells will die if we put them on a dish
- We gain skills but we also lose things like being able to live on our on
- The specialised cells rely on the whole organism to keep them alive
What are the 4 main types of tissues?
- Muscular
- Nervous
- Epithelial
- Connective
What is the function of nervous tissue?
It conducts electrical impulses and is the cell which forms the control system of our body
What is the function of muscle tissue?
- Made of contractile cells, it allows your body to move
- These contractile cells are responsible for movement, pumping blood and changing size
What is the function of epithelial tissue?
- A lining tissue that line all the organs in your body
- It allows for secretion, absorption, filtration, protection and contributes to stretchiness
What is the purpose of connective tissue?
Anything that isn’t the other 3 tissues is considered connective. Connects shit together
What are the two further types of cells which comprise nervous tissue?
Neurons (detect stimuli and transmit messages) and neuroglia (protect and assist neurons)
What are the types of muscl cells?
Smooth, skeletal and cardiac
When we talk about epithelial tissue, there’s 3 words we use (the third being epithelium) (there’s one exception):
What can the first word be and what does it describe?
- It can be simple, pseudostratified or stratified
- Simple means that there’s only one layer of cells
- Stratified means that there are two or more layers of cells
- Pseudostratified means it’s 1 layer but the cells are squished so it looks like there’s more than one layer
(refers to how cells are layered)
When we talk about epithelial tissue, there’s 3 words we use (the third being epithelium) (there’s one exception):
What can the second word be and what does it describe?
- Squamous, cuboidal, columnar
- Squamous means the cells are squished thin
- Cuboidal means cells are like cubes
- Columnar means the cells are arranged like columns
(refers to the actual shape of the cell)
Summarise the differences in function between all the different types of epithelium
- The thinner, squamous cells are used for exchanging nutrients and materials
- Cuboidal and columnar are more useful for absorption and secretion
- Stratified epithila is more for protection and providing stretchiness
- Simple is more for exchange of materials
What is transitional epithelium?
- Lots of small epithelium cells stacked on top of each other
- Mainly used for stretchiness
What makes connective tissue unique from the other tissues?
There’s not actually many cells, there’s a lot of open space which is filled with an extracellular matrix
What can comprise ECM and how can this be explain the difference between bones and red blood cells despite both being connective tissue?
- ECM can be comprised of fibres or ground substance
- The fibres can contain collagen which is strong and elastin which is stretchy
- Ground substance contains stuff like glycoproteins (remember carbs and protein) which make it a kind of gel and it contains GAGs
- All connective tissue types contain both fibres and ground substance in varying amounts
- For example in blood, there’s more ground substance than fibres (especially collagen)
- Meanwhile in bone, it’s mainly collagen with calcium salt
Examples of connective tissue
- Blood
- Fat
- Cartilage
- Bone
- Fibrous connective tissue
What are the three ways cells are held together?
- Tight junctions or occluding junctions
- Desmosomes or adhaerans junctions
- Gap Junctions or communicating junctions
Describe what the function and characteristics of an occluding junction are
- A tight junction seals the small gaps between cells and forces substances to go through cells rather than the spaces between them
- Note: They are tight (water tight, don’t let things through) BUT THEY ARE NOT STRONG
- This is because adhesive proteins known as claudins attach only to the plasma membrane which is a weak connection
Describe the function and characteristics of an adhaeran junction
- A desmosome is a super strong connection between two cells which hold them together
- They are strong because protein known as cadherins attach to the intermediate filaments in the other cells cytoskeleton
Describe the function and characteristics of a communicating junction (in terms of structure)
- Gap junctions allows small ions, molecules and nutrients to pass through from one cell to another
- It also allows for direct communication between two cells
- Between two cells exist connexons
- Connexons are rings of proteins that have a pore or hole in the middle of them which allows stuff to pass through
- Connexons exist on the membrane of two cells which are next to each other, adjacent
- Can be located in cardiac and smooth muscle
What are the basic components of cell communication (ignore gap junctions)?
- A signalling cell which sends a cell known as a ligand
- A receiving cell which receives the ligand at a receiver or receptor
What are the different ways that cells talk to each other?
- Direct:
- Juxtacrine
- Gap Junctions
- Via ECF
- Autocrine
- Paracrine
- Endocrine
- Neuronal
Explain how gap junctions facilitate cell communication
- Direct form of cell communication
- Gap junctions allow communication between two cells in direct physical contact with each other
- The communicating junction connects two cytoplasms together and allows free passage of molecules and ions
- It can be found in the heart and some smooth muscle (this kind of communication)
Explain how juxtracrine cell communication occurs
- Direct form of cell communication
- On the signalling molecule there is a ligand component but it is directly connected to the receptor of a neighbouring cell
- Hence the ligand/signal never actually travels out of the cell, goes straight to the other cell
Explain what and how autocrine cell commucation occurs
- This is done via ECF
- It occurs when the cell (auto) signals to itself
- It occurs over very small distances (less than 20 microns)
Explain what and how paracrine cell communication is
- Occurs between cells not in phyical contact
- Signalling cell releases ligand into ECF and it acts on other cells which are close by
- Ligand attaches to receptor
Explain endocrine cell communication
- Acts over long distances
- Signalling cell dumps ligand into bloodstream where it keeps going until it finds a cell with a receptor capable of receiving the ligand
- As the bloodstream spans the whole body, the ligand will eventually reach the target cell
Explain how neuronal or neural communication happens
- Acts over long distances
- The ligand is transmitted over a neuron and it arrives at a very specific area of cells
What is the function of membranes?
Selectively permeable barrier
* Compartmentalization
* Scaffold for biochemical activities
* Can respond to external signals
* Intercellular interaction
* Energy transduction
* Transporting solutes
protection
What is transported across cell membranes?
- macromolecules
- small solutes (neutral and non polar molecules)
- polar and charged molecules/ions
Why do molecules actually move around and not just stay still?
- Molecules are constantly in random motion (brownian motion)
- according to second TMC law, systems tend to disorder, stuff wants to move away from each other
- So molecules will diffuse, from region of high conc. to low conc.
What governs if molecules diffuse (chemically)?
- The concentration gradient
- If there’s no difference in concentration between two regions, diffusion will not occur
How do other ions, molecules etc. affect concentration gradients?
- Other molecules do not affect the diffusion of another molecule
- However, if charge is involved stuff might happen
What is Fick’s Law of Diffusion?
- Allows us to calculate flux
- Flux is the number of molecules passing through a certain area in a given amount of time
- Flux is proportional (increases) as concentration gradient increases (the difference in concentration is higher) and is inversely proportional to the distance molecules have to travel
- Also, different molecules diffuse through different things at different rates
- So there’s diffusion co-efficient, which measure how easily diffusion occurs for that solute through that solution
What is required for diffusion to occur (structurally)?
- A permeable membrane
- If no permeability, absolutely no diffusion can occur
What kinds of molecules diffuse the fastest through membranes?
Small, non polar molecules (over our lipid bilayer)
What are the 5 factors which affect diffusion rate and how do they affect diffusion?
- As the concentration gradient increases, DR (diffusion rate) increases
- As surface area of membrane increases, DR increases
- Lipid solubility increases, DR increases
- Molecular weight increases, DR decreases
- Distance molecule has to travel or thickness membrane increases, DR decreases
What is the ionic composition of ECF vs ICF?
- Main cation in ECF: Na + , Main anion in ECF: Cl-
- Main cation in ICF: K+, main anion in ICF: PO4 (3-)
What is osmosis and how does it occur?
- The movement of water across a membrane
- Special because although water is small, it’s polar so DR is kind of low across a membrane
- So, cells have water channels called aquaporions
- These allow bidrectional diffusion (into and out of cell) of H2O
- Specific to water
- Increases the diffusion rate by more than 10x
What is osmolarity?
- We don’t measure the concentration of water
- We measure how much stuff is within the water compared to the amount of water present
- Water diffuses goes from a low osmolarity to high osmolarity
- Simply put: Lots of shit in little water
What is osmolarity of a typical cell’s cytoplasm?
- 300 MILLI OSMOLES PER LITRE
- 300 mOsmoles/L
What is tonicity and what are the 3 kinds of tonicity?
- Always assume cell is within some solution
- Hypotonic: The solution is hypotonic, water will flow into the cell as more shit in the cell compared to outside, solution has lower osmolarity
- Isotonic: The solution and cell have similar osmolarity
- Hypertonic: Solution has higher osmolarity, so water flows out from the cell
Compare and contrast osmolarity and tonicity and how they are related
- Osmolarity is a numerical measurement
- Tonicity is relative
- Sometimes if two substances are iso-osmolar (same osmolarity), they can be isotonic
- However other times, they may not be
- BECAUSE: You can have the same amount of solutes, but different solutes
- The solutes may diffuse which will lead to difference in osmolarity after
What are ways diffusion can occur in a cell? (what structures)
- Through the membrane
- Through channels and pores
What are the different membrane transport processes?
- Simple passive diffusion
- Protein carriers
- Diffusion through a carrier or port
- Diffusion through symport (same direction)
- Diffusion through antiport (opposite direction)
- Pumps
- A pump transports stuff
- This is a primary active transport as it uses ATP or energy
- Doesn’t need a concentration gradient like the others
Proteins + Pumps are carrier mediated but proteins still involve diffusion principles