Studied by 3 people
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What is cancer
group of diseases where cells divide uncontrollably.
Occur bc of mutations in DNA that control checkpoints, errors not found/dealt with and tumours form
Benign VS Malignant tumour
Tumour = Abnormal growth of tissue, can develop anywhere at any stage of life
Benign: Non cancerous
encapsulated and easy to remove
only puts pressure on surrounding tissue
Malignant: Cancerous
not encapsulated, hard to remove
interferes with neigbouring cells and can lead to organ failure
Metastasis
Process of cancer cells breaking away from primary tumour (where it first develops) and establishing secondary tumour elsewhere in body. Travels through bloodstream
2 types of stem cells
Embryonic Stem Cell = Pluripotent, differentiate into many types of cell
Tissue/Adult stem cell = exist within specialized tissue, are unipotent, only differentiate into cell of tissue it came from
3 sources of stem cells + their pros and cons
Embryo - can be created by therapeutic cloning
pros = unlimited growth potential, can be obtained from IVF programs
cons = higher tumour risk, can only be obtained through destroying an embryo
Cord Blood - umbilical cord / placenta of newborn
Pros = lower tumour risk, easily obtained and stored
Cons = reduced growth potential, limited quantities available, umbilical cord is removed at birth and discarded whether stem cells harvested or not, only becomes different types of blood cells
Adult Tissue
pros = lower tumour risk, adult patient can give extraction permission
cons = reduced growth potential, difficult to obtain bc very few and buried very deep in tissue
Whats a stem cell, whats its use? Differentiation?
Stem Cells = Unspecialized cells that can continuously divide and replicate, and have capacity to differentiate into specialized cell types
Differentiation = process where newly formed cells become more specialized and distinct from one another as they mature, by chemical signals activating specific instructions on their DNA
Specialized cell and levels
A cell that can perform a specific function
Totipotent - differentiates into ANY type of cell
Pluripotent - MANY types of cell
Multipotent - FEW CLOSELY RELATED types of cell
Unipotent - can regenerate, only differentiate into ASSOCIATED cell type
