Cellular Adaptation, Injury, and Death Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from pathology lectures including cellular adaptation, mechanisms of cell injury, chemical toxicities, modes of cellular death, and necrotic subtypes.

Cellular Adaptation

Cells' response to escape and protect themselves from injury.

Atrophy

A decrease in cell size that results in a reduction of tissue or organ size.

Physiological Atrophy

A normal reduction in tissue or organ size occurring due to decreased cell activity, reduced hormone stimulation, or age-related changes (e.g., thymus gland shrinking during puberty or uterine shrinking after menopause).

Pathological Atrophy

A reduction in tissue or organ size caused by disease, decreased workload, pressure, decreased blood supply, loss of hormonal stimulation, or loss of nervous stimulation.

Hypertrophy

An increase in cell size resulting in the enlargement of a tissue or organ.

Physiological Hypertrophy

Normal enlargement of tissue or organ size due to increased demand, such as muscle growth from weight training.

Pathological Hypertrophy

Enlargement of tissue or organ size caused by disease or abnormal conditions, such as left ventricular hypertrophy from hypertension.

Hyperplasia

An increase in cell number caused by an increased rate of cellular division.

Compensatory Hyperplasia

A type of physiological hyperplasia that allows organs to regenerate, such as liver regeneration after partial removal.

Hormonal Hyperplasia

A type of physiological hyperplasia that replaces lost tissue or supports new growth, such as breast gland enlargement during pregnancy due to estrogen stimulation.

Pathological Hyperplasia

An increase in cell number resulting from excessive hormonal stimulation or effects of growth factors on target tissues, such as prostate enlargement in BPH.

Metaplasia

The reversible replacement of one mature cell type by another less mature cell type (normal mature cells change into a different type of mature cell) as an adaptive response to chronic irritation or inflammation.

Dysplasia

Deranged cellular growth (atypical hyperplasia) characterized by abnormal changes in the size, shape, and organization of mature cells.

Metaplasia vs. Dysplasia

Metaplasia occurs when normal mature cells change into a different type of mature cell, whereas dysplasia occurs when cells become abnormal in size, shape, and organization. Both processes are pathological.

Cellular Injury

Damage that occurs when cells are exposed to stress or harmful agents beyond their ability to adapt.

Reversible Injury

Cellular damage from which cells recover if the stress is removed.

Irreversible Injury

Severe cellular damage from which cells cannot recover, leading to cell death.

Ischemic-Reperfusion Injury

Cellular injury resulting from an ischemia phase (low oxygen causing anaerobic metabolism and ion pump failure) followed by a reperfusion phase where sudden oxygen restoration causes a burst of reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress.

Lead Toxicity

Chemical toxicity that directly affects the central and peripheral nervous system.

Carbon Monoxide Toxicity

Chemical toxicity that directly reduces the oxygen-carrying capacity of blood and promotes tissue hypoxia.

Ethyl Alcohol Toxicity

Chemical toxicity resulting in major nutritional deficiencies, especially folate.

Pathological Calcification

Abnormal deposition of calcium salts within tissues.

Dystrophic Calcification

Calcium deposition that occurs specifically in dead or damaged tissues despite normal serum calcium levels.

Necrosis

Uncontrolled cell or tissue death in a living organism usually caused by injury, involving inflammatory changes that lead to autolysis.

Apoptosis

Programmed, controlled cell death that the body uses to remove old, unwanted, or damaged cells without causing inflammatory changes.

Pyknosis

The shrinking of the cell nucleus during cellular necrosis.

Karyorrhexis

The fragmentation of the cell nucleus during cellular necrosis.

Karyolysis

Nuclear dissolution and chromatin lysis during cellular necrosis.

Coagulative Necrosis

A morphological form of necrosis where dead cells are transformed into a gray, firm mass.

Liquefactive Necrosis

A form of necrosis where hydrolytic enzymes convert dead tissue into a liquid-filled cyst or pus.

Caseous Necrosis

A form of necrosis where dead cells are transformed into a cheese-like substance that is walled off.

Fat Necrosis

A form of necrosis that occurs exclusively in adipose tissue.

Gangrenous Necrosis

Necrosis involving a considerable mass of tissue, categorizable as dry, wet, or gas gangrene.

Dry Gangrene

A type of gangrene where tissue becomes dry and shrinks due to blocked blood supply, without infection.

Wet Gangrene

A type of gangrene occurring when dead tissue is infected by bacteria, leading to rapid breakdown, swelling, and potential sepsis.

Gas Gangrene

A special form of gangrene resulting from tissue infection by Clostridium bacteria.

Autophagy

A self-destructive cellular process ("self-eating") in which cells selectively digest their own damaged parts, old organelles, or misfolded proteins to clean up or generate energy.