Pathological Processes 1+2 Flashcards
Cell injury
Cell injury results when cells are stressed and can no longer adapt
3 things that degree of injury depends on :
- Type of injury = physical/chemical
- Severity of injury
- type of tissue
Process of responding to injury
• Homeostasis
• Cellular adaptation – to the change
• Cellular injury
• Cell death = when injury is irreversible
—> Cell injury results when cells are stressed and can no longer adapt
Causes of cell injury
• Hypoxia – lack of oxygen • Toxins • Physical agents – Direct trauma – Extremes of temperature – Changes in pressure – Electric currents • Radiation • Micro-organisms - infection • Immune mechanisms – macrophages, neutrophils • Dietary insufficiency and deficiencies, dietary excess – cell energy sources
What is hypoxia?
—-> Hypoxia is a deficiency of oxygen that can result in a reduction in aerobic oxidative respiration. Extremely important common cause of cell injury/cell death.
What do hypoxia tumours snow ?
- Increased aggressiveness
- Resistance to therapy
- Increased metastasis - cancer spreads to different part of body
- Poor prognosis
4 types of hypoxia
Hypoxaemic hypoxia – arterial content of oxygen is low
Anaemic hypoxia – decreased ability of haemoglobin to carry oxygen
Histiocytic hypoxia – inability to utilise oxygen in cells due to disabled oxidative phosphorylation enzymes
Ischaemic hypoxia - interruption to blood supply
Ischaemia
—> ischaemia = insufficient blood flow to provide adequate oxygenation
Examples of injury causing toxins
- Glucose and salt in hypertonic solutions – change cell homeostasis
- High concentration of oxygen – can form free radicals
- Poisons
- Pollutants
- Insecticides
- Herbicides
- Asbestos
- Alcohol
- Narcotic drugs
- Medicines
How does immune system cause cell injury?
- Hypersensitivity reactions
- host tissue is injured secondary to an overly vigorous immune reaction, e.g., urticaria (= hives)
- Autoimmune reactions
- immune system fails to distinguish self from non-self, e.g., Grave’s disease of thyroid
What are free radicals?
Reactive Oxygen Species
• Single unpaired electron in an outer orbit – an unstable configuration hence react with other molecules, often producing further free radicals
Production of free radicals - 5 methods
- Normal metabolic reactions: e.g., oxidative phosphorylation
- Inflammation: oxidative burst of neutrophils
- Radiation: H2O OH• = break bounds = free radicals
- Contact with unbound metals within thebody: iron (by Fenton reaction) and copper
• Free radical damage occurs in haemachromatosis and Wilson’s disease - Drugs and chemicals: e.g., in the liver during metabolism of paracetamol or carbon tetrachloride by P450 system
3 things that control free radicals
- Anti-oxidant scavengers: donate electrons to the free radical
• vitamins A, C and E - Metal carrier and storage proteins
• (transferrin, ceruloplasmin): sequester iron and copper - Enzymes that neutralise free radicals
• Superoxide dismutase
• Catalase
• Glutathione peroxidase
Free radicals mechanism of cell injury
- –> number of free radicals overwhelms the anti-oxidant system = oxidative imbalance
- -> tend to attack bonds specifically double bonds
- Most important target are lipids in cell membranes.
- Cause lipid peroxidation.
- This leads to generation of further free radicals → autocatalytic chain reaction.
- Also oxidise proteins, carbohydrates and DNA
- These molecules become bent out of shape, broken or cross-linked
- Mutagenic and therefore carcinogenic
How does cell protect itself against injury?
—> aim to correct the mistake
• Heat shock proteins – try to correct misfolded proteins
Heat shock protein
- Heat shock proteins – try to correct misfolded proteins
- In cell injury heat shock response aims to ‘mend’ mis-folded proteins and maintain cell viability.
- Unfoldases or chaperonins.
- An example – ubiquitin.
Diagnosing cell death - staining
The diagnosis of cell death in short time is best measure on their functional capability rather than morphologic criteria, e.g., increased permeability of the cell membrane.
1. Add dye to cell mixture 2. Dye can only go into cells if there are pores and gaps in membrane 3. So dye only passes into membrane of damaged cells 4. Only dead cells are stained as blue 5. Live cells are intact and remain unstained
Necrosis definition
—> Necrosis: in a living organism the morphologic changes that occur after a cell has been dead some time. Damage to intracellular organelles
• Seen after 12-24 hours
→ protein denaturation and enzyme release
4 types of necrosis
Coagulative
Liquefactive
Caseous
Fat
Coagulative necrosis
•Denaturation of proteins dominates over release of active proteases.
•Cellular architecture is somewhat preserved, “ghost outline” of cells.
1. Protein starts to get denatured
2. Ghost outline of cell is present
- see lots of neutrophils
Shape of cell can be seen but proteins have been denatured
→ check image on 1.1
Liquefactive necrosis
- Complete dissolution of necrotic tissue
- Most commonly due to massive infiltration by neutrophils (abscess formation).
- Release of reactive oxygen species and proteases = further degrade tissue
- Enzyme degradation is substantially greater than denaturation.
- Leads to enzymatic digestion (liquefaction) of tissues
→ mainly in the brain due to very high concentration of lysosymes
Caseous necrosis
Contains amorphous (structureless) debris. (no ghost outline like seen in coagulative necrosis).
• Structureless debris
•Particularly associated with infections, especially tuberculosis.- lung
→ tissue almost looks smooth , no cell outlines as original tissue architecture is lost
Fat necrosis
- Results from action of lipases released into adipose tissue.
- Free fatty acids accumulate and precipitate as calcium soaps (saponification).
- These precipitates are grossly visible as pale yellow/white nodules
- Seen on the slide 2.1
- Common in adipose tissue
Gangrene
Necrosis visible to the naked eye
- appearance of necrosis