Tissues Flashcards
What makes up the cytoskeleton?
Microtubules, Intermediate Filaments and Microfilaments.
What do microtubules consist of? Where are they found?
Polymers of alpha and beta TUBULIN. Found radiating out from Microtubule Organising Centers (MTOCs)
What are the sizes of the cytoskeleton filaments?
Microtubules - 20nm
Intermediate Filaments - 10-15nm
Microfilaments - 8nm
What are the functions of microtubules?
- cell shape
- tracks for movement of organelles and vesicles
- component of cilia and flagella (9 + 2 arrangement)
Give an example of an Intermediate Filament
Nuclear LAMINS form a network on the internal surface of the nuclear envelope (nuclear lamina) involved in stabilising the envelope.
What are microfilaments composed of?
F-actin (polymer of G-actin)
What are the functions of microfilaments?
- Associate with adhesion belts in epithelia and endothelia
- Involved in cell shape and movement
- Movement of organelles and vesicles within cells
What are the main cell types? What tumours do they form?
- Epithelial: Carcinoma
- Mesenchymal cells (cells of connective tissue): Sarcoma
- Haematopoietic (cells of bone marrow and blood cells): Leukaemia and Lymphomas
- Neural (neurones and glia): Neuroblastomas and Gliomas
What is the extracellular matrix and what is it composed of?
Material deposited by cells which forms the insoluble part of the extracellular environment.
Generally composed of fibrillar proteins (i.e collagens and elastin) embedded in a hydrated gel (proteoglycans).
Give an example of where the ECM is poorly organised and highly organised?
Poorly - loose connective tissue
Highly - tendon, bone and basal lamina
What are the different FORMS of cell-cell junctions?
Maculae (spots) and Zonulae (belts)
What are the different TYPES of cell-cell junctions?
Zonula occludens (Occluding junction / Tight junction) Zonula adherens (Adhesion belt / Adhesion junction) Macula adherens (Spot junction / Desmosome) Macula communicans (Gap junctions) Synapses
What are the properties and functions of Tight junctions?
- Most apical junction
- Forms a network of contacts, the more elaborate the network, the tighter the signal
- Seals paracellular pathway
- Segregates apical and basolateral membrane (polarity)
What are the properties and functions of Adhesion belts?
- Form just basal to tight junctions
- Joins actin bundles in neighbouring cells using cadherin molecules
- Controls stability of other junctions
What are the properties and functions of Desmosomes?
- Found at multiple spots between adjacent cell membranes
- Transmembrane cell adhesion molecule is a cadherin-like molecule that joins intermediate filaments in neighbouring cells
- provides mechanical continuity
What are the properties and functions of Gap junctions?
- Made up of a cluster of pores formed from 6 identical subunits in the membrane
- Allows passage of ions and small molecules between cells
- pH, [Ca] and voltage can affect passage by opening and closing pores
What is always associated with epithelial organs?
Basal lamina and connective tissue
How can epithelia be classified?
Shape: cuboidal, columnar, squamous
Layering: simple, stratified and pseudo-stratified
How are stratified cells classified?
By looking at apical layers
Give examples of squamous, cuboidal and columnar cells
Squamous: lung alveolar, mesothelium, endothelium
Cuboidal: kidney collecting duct
Columnar: enterocytes
What are the two types of squamous stratified tissues?
a) Keratinising (no visible nuclei) e.g epidermis
b) Non-keratinising e.g lining mouth
Why is it important that epithelia are polarised?
- Secretion and transport must be unidirectional
- Give directionality
- Allows membrane polarity by cell-cell junctions separating the membrane into two distinct domains (basal and apical)
In transporting epithelium, where would mitochondria be found?
Basal membrans infoldings, as transport happens to/from blood vessels which face the basal membrane.
Describe the intestinal epithelium.
Simple columnar with enterocytes and goblet cells. They are organised in villi with a core of connective tissue. The villi is split into the tip, villus and cript.
From what membrane do exocrine and endocrine tissue secrete from?
Exocrine secrete from apical membrane
Endocrine secrete from basal membrane
Give an example of exocrine and endocrine tissue
Exocrine: Pancreatic acinar cells
Endocrine: Islet of Langerhan cells
What are the ways exocrine tissues can be organised?
Tubular, branched tubular, coiled tubular, branched alveolar, compounded tubular and compounded alveolar
How can exocrine tissue be classified on the way they secrete?
- Constitutive - secretory vesicles fuse with membrane straight after they are formed
- Stimulated - decretory vesicles are stored, and only fuse after stimulation
What are the layers of skin?
Epidermis, dermis and hypodermis
How can skin adapt to mechanical pressure?
Cuboidal basal layer cells have stem cells which can increase mitotic rate when subjected to pressure
What are the intermediate filaments of the epithelia? How can a defect of these cause disease?
Cytokeratins. A defect may prevent them joining together through desmosomes, making epithelia weak.
What are the functions of ECM?
- provide physical support
- determine mechanical and physiochemical properties of the tissue
- influences growth, adhesion and differentiation status of cells
- essential for development, tissue function and organogenesis.
What are the components of ECM?
- Collagens Type I, II and III (fibrilar) and Type IV (basement lamina)
- Multi-adhesive glycoproteins (Fibronectin, Fibrinogen, and Laminins in basement lamina)
- Proteoglycans (Aggrecan, Versican, Decorin, and Perlecan in basement lamina)
- Hyaluronan
- Elastic Fibers
What is connective tissue?
Extracellular matrix and component cells (mainly fibroblasts)
What are the four types of ECM abnormalities? Give an example for each one.
1) Gene mutations affecting matrix proteins - e.g osteogenesis imperfecta is from abnormal collagen
2) Gene mutations effecting ECM catabolism e.g Hurler’s syndrome
3) Too much ECM deposition - e.g Liver fibrosis (cirrhosis)
4) Excessive loss of ECM - e.g osteoarthritis
What are the cells that manufacture the ECM?
Fibroblasts (in bone called osteoblasts)
What are the most abundant proteins in animals?
Collagen
What does collagen (type I, III and III) consist of?
Three alpha chains, forming a right-hand tribe helix.
What is the general amino acid sequence for collagen?
Gyl - x - y
x is usually proline and y is usually hydroxyproline
What makes collagen fibers?
Many collagen molecules form collagen fibrils, stabilised by cross-links. Many collagen fibrils form collagen fibres.
When are non-collagenous domains at the N and C terminal removed?
After secretion in the case of fibrillar collagens, but they remain in other collagen types.
What post-translation modification is done to collagen and why? What conditions are necessary for this to occur?
Lysine and Proline are hydroxylated by prolyl and lysyl hydroxylases. Hydroxyl groups are important for hydrogen bonding between the different chains and helps in covalent bonding in collagen fibrils.
The hydroxylases need Fe2+ and Vitamin C
Give examples of non-fibrillar collagen
Type IV collagen is a network forming collagen part of the basal lamina.
Types IX and XII are fibril-associate collagens which associate with fibrillar collagens and regular organisation of collagen fibrils.
How and why are elastic fibres used?
Elastic fibres are interwoven with collagen in the ECM to limit the extent of stretching.
What are elastic fibers made of? And their constituents?
Elastin core and microfirbils. Microfibrils are rich in fibrillin.
Elastin is a polypeptide chain with hydrophobic and alpha-helical alternating regions rich in alanine and lysine. Many lysine side-chains are covalently cross-linked.
Give an example of a disease associated with collagen and elastic fibers defects.
Collagen Type 1 is defected in Osteogenesis Imperfecta. Collagen IV is defected in Alports.
Fibrillin-1 is defected in Marfan’s syndrome. This has skeletal, ocular and cardiovascular manifestations. Patients are often long and skinny.
Where are basal lamina found?
Thin mats of extracellular matrix underlying epithelial sheets, tubes and glands. Also surround muscle, peripheral nerves and fat cells.
What are the properties and functions of Laminins?
- Very large
- Multi-adhesive
- Interacts with cell-surface receptors such as interns and dystroglycan
- Can self-associate as part of the basement membrane matrix
- Interact with type IV collagen, nidogen and proteogylcans
What are the structural motifs of laminins?
Consists of three chains: alpha, beta and gamma forming a cross-shaped molecule.
What diseases are associated with defected laminins?
Muscular dystrophy and Epidermolysis Bullosa
Explain the pathophysiology of congenital muscular dystrophy
Absence of alpha2 in laminin 2. Causing hypotonia, generalised weakness and joint deformities.
What are fibronectins?
Family of glycoproteins of the ECM
What are the properties and functions of fibronectins?
- Insoluble fibrillar component of ECM
- Large multidomain molecule that can interact with cell surface and other matrix molecules
- Forms a V shape
- Binds collagen to integrin, which is bound to cell’s cytoskeleton
- Forms a mechanical continuum with actin cytoskeleton
- Important in regulating cell adhesion and migration in embryogenesis
What ECM has no known mutations and why?
Fibronectins - they must be essential for life
How do integrins bind to fibronectins?
RGD motifs in two of its domains