1.3 Cellular Pathophysiology

In the cellular pathophysiology unit, we learned about what causes a disease on a cellular basis. We found that the 5 things why a cell  would not function properly were Adaptation, Cell Injury , Cellular Death, Aging and Neoplasia. In this unit we focused on adaptation and Cell Injury.
Adaptation is defined as reversible changes in the number, size, phenotype, metabolic activity, or functions of cells in response to changes in their environment to prevent injury. This would occur if a cell was refers to changes made by a cell in response to environmental changes or injurious agents. If the cell is unable to adapt, the cell would then eventually die. There are four types of adaptive responses: Hypertrophy, Hyperplasia, Atrophy and Metaplasia. Hypertrophy is an increase in cell size which results in the size of an organ. Metaplasia is a reversible change in which one adult cell
type is replaced by another adult cell type. Shrinkage in the size of the cell by the loss of cell substance is known as atrophy. Hyperplasia is the increased cell numbers in response
to hormones and other growth factors which occurs in tissues whose cells are able to divide. When I am given many tasks to do all at one time, this is what I would compare to an injurious agent. Usually I stop what I am doing in order to have everything in my mind come together neatly for the best outcome. This is like Atrophy and how the cell size shrinks and how it loses its function. In this case it is reversible when all of my jobs are done well and in time which then brings me back to normal.  

 

 

  

  



  

  

 

Skin Cancer Unit Reflections

In this unit our base of study is the structure ,  function , and cancers related to the skin. This started before the class began with our summer inquiry project (SIP), involving us to create an experiment including UV sensitive beads to test different variables which are used to protect our skin from UV Rays. My experiment tested the connection of if pricier sunglasses automatically means better eye protection. I found this to be untrue and that what you should look for in UV protection rather  than in the price the SPF in the lens. This is the same idea with sunscreen.  We then got into the Skin you're in Unit which was about the skin and cancers. The cancer topic was very interesting to because I was able to
get a good understanding on all the components of the disease and how it comes to be. While I did know about cancer I now understand the vocabulary that is used such as malignant, basal carcinoma, melanoma, stages vs. grades etc. It also allowed to see a bit of what oncologists treat and while I do not want to go into the field it was great to get a taste of what  they do. But my favorite part of this class is the rotations . I felt so professional in my scrubs and that feeling made me sure that I wanted to go into medicine. Our first was last week and my rotation partner and I went to the endoscopy unit of the hospital. I got to see one colonoscopy and two EGD's. The procedures were awesome to see and a privilege to see it at least once. I am pretty sure that this is my favorite class this year and I can't wait on what else we will learn this year!