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‫بسم ال الرحمن الرحيم‬

Hey guyz ^^
I will continue talking about the cell. Last time I stopped talking about
the cytoskeleton, and I mentioned the three components of the cytoskeleton
which where Microtubules, Microfilaments, and Intermediate filaments. So
microtubules are rod-like structures, having a dense wall and hollow interior,
as shown in this electron micrograph.

Microtubules are composed of a protein called Tubulin. They function in cell

form and intracellular transport. They are observed in the spindle of mitosis,
since they form the basis for centrioles. You've already learnt about centrioles
in Biology, which are cylindrical structures. Now, centrioles are present in pairs
close to the nucleus of non-dividing cells forming what's called Centrosome.

The second cytoskeletal component is the microfilaments, which are

also known as the actin filaments since they are made of actin (a protein).
Now, microfilaments form a thin sheath or network beneath the plasma
membrane - plasma membrane is also called plasmalemma. This network is
involoved in cell shape changes, such as those occurring during endocytosis
and excocytosis. Microfilaments are closely associated with cytoplasm,
granules, vesicles and organelles, and they play a role in their movement or
shifting, and this is called cytoplasmic streaming. This is an electron
micrograph of a part of the cytoplasm of a cell. You can see two types of
cytoskeletal components; the first one is the microfilaments, and the second
one is the microtubules. As you can see, the microtubules are thicker than the
microfilaments.

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 Microtubules vs. microfilaments

The intermediate filaments have a size that's in between the microfilaments

and the microtubules; they are larger than the microfilaments and smaller
than the microtubules. The intermediate filaments are more stable than the
microtubules and the microfilaments, and they vary in their protein subunit
structure in different cell types, and they provide mechanical strength or
stability to cells. This table (am afraid u guyz r gonna have to wait till we get
the slides) shows different types or examples of intermediate filaments. I said
in the previous slide that the intermediate filaments are composed of different
protein subunit structure in different cells, and so these are examples of the
intermediate filaments present in different cells. For example you have the
cytokeratins; vimentin, desmin, and glial fibrillary acidic protein GFAP, and
neurofilaments, and these are the cell types where you can see such kinds of
intermediate filaments. This is an electron micrograph of a part of a cell
cytoplasm. You can see here these ones are the intermediate filaments.

Inclusions are cytoplasmic structures, they are not organelles, they are
accumulated metabolites or other substances. They last for a very short time,
that's why they are described as being transitory! They are non-motile and
they have very little or no metabolic activity. These images show examples of
inclusions; the first one in "A" is an electron micrograph showing lipid droplets
or fat droplets, you can see those spherical structures with homogenous
matrices. In "B", you can see glycogen clusters, and they appear as electron
dense structures in the electron microscope. Of course, glycogen is a
carbohydrate polymer, so you expect it to be positive to PAS (Periodic Acid
Schiff). The last one in "C" is for lipofuscin, which is a by-product of lysosomal
digestion that accumulates over time, so here, remember that it's pigmented
and shown under the light microscope, whereas those for the other examples
are shown under the electron microscope.

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 A B C

THE NUCLEUS
The nucleus regulates the cellular structure and activity by housing the
genetic material, which directs those activities and regulates the structure.
Now, there's a production of ribosomal subunits in the nucleolus for export
into the cytoplasm of the cell. The electron micrograph shown is of a cell
nucleus. There are three components of the nucleus which are; the nuclear
envelope, which encloses the nucleus, then the chromatin, and then the
nucleolus. Now, you can see that the chromatin is not completely
homogeneous; you have heterogeneous clumps and then you have the
homogeneous or dispersed form of chromatin.

In the nucleolus as well, you can see two distinct regions; one is darker or
more electron dense than the other and called pars fibrosa – pars means
layer, and fibrosa is a greek way of naming things, so pars fibrosa means
fibrous layer. The second layer which is less electron dense is called pars
granulose, which means granular layer. The well developed nucleolus that is
highly basophilic, and you know that the nucleolus is highly basophilic
because of it's RNA content.

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The following image is just a scanapick representation of the nucleus, so you
can see more details than the ones that are shown in the real electron
micrograph. You can see, as we previously mentioned, that the first
component of the nucleus is the nuclear envelope. The nuclear envelope is
composed of two membranes with the intervening space; there is the outer
nuclear membrane, the inner nuclear membrane and then the space as I said
before. There are sites where the outer and the inner nuclear membranes fuse
forming pores, and these pores allow for the exchange of substances between
the nucleus and the cytoplasm since the nuclear envelope is completely
impermeable to ions and molecules. The outer mitochondrial membrane has
binding sites for ribosomes, so it has ribosomes attached to it, and it's
continuous with the rough endoplasmic reticulum. You can see that, and even
if the electron micrograph is just inside the nuclear envelope, you can see a
thin electron dense layer called the nuclear lamina which is composed of
intermediate filaments called lamin. And the nuclear lamina helps to provide
stability to the nuclear envelope. Now closely associated with the nuclear
lamina is the heterochromatin. Again in the nucleolus, you have pars fibrosa
and pars granulosa. So again, the nuclear lamina is a lattice (means a mish
work or network), it's just inside the nuclear envelope, and it's formed by the
lamin, and it has the heterochromatin closely associated to it, that's why the
nuclear lamina, and we said before it provides stability to the nuclear
envelope, also regulates chromatin by providing binding sites to it.

So Chromatin is composed of coiled strands of DNA that are bound to basic

proteins called histones. The basic structural unit of chromatin is called
nucleosome. Chromatin is condensed into chromosome so it forms the

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microscopically visible structures called chromosomes during meiosis and
mitosis.

One colleague asks a question (am sry I cdn't hear it) and the answer was:
I want you to understand this really well, because you can benefit from it a lot
in the lab, it's one of the bases! Now, this is the nucleus, and this is the
nuclear envelope, of course it's not that clear under the light microscope,
however, it's a limiting structure of the nucleus. Now, surrounding the
nucleolus is the chromatin, you can see, this first form of chromatin, it's called
Euchromatin, and then you can see these dense dark areas which are the
clusters of the heterochromatin. In non-dividing cells, chromatin is more
euchromatic. (plz refer to the images above)

The Dr. asks if the situation is well understood for us and the answer was no,
so she further explains:
Chromatin exists or is present in two forms; the first one is called
euchromatin, and it's the disperse form of chromatin, and it's abundance in
the cell results in it having lightly stained nucleus, not the whole cell, the
nucleus is lightly stained whenever chromatin is in the dispersed form called
euchromatin. Euchromatin is the less coiled portion of the chromosome, and
so it has dispersed form of DNA, which is more available for the transcription
of RNA, therefore you expect euchromatin to be more available or present in
cells that are more active in protein synthesis.
The second form is the heterochromatin. Heterochromatin has tightly coiled
DNA, whenever you see the dark clumps in the nucleus these are
heterochromatic clumps. So, the abundance of heterochromatin in the nucleus
results in it being darkly stained. Again the heterochromatin has the tightly
coiled DNA, so it has less access to transcription and therefore it's present in
cells that are less active in protein synthesis.

There's a chromatin that's called sex chromatin, why is it called so? Because
it's one of the sex chromosomes which are the X chromosomes. Sex chromatin
is present in females only, and again it's one of the two X chromosomes that
condenses and remains heterochromatic and genetically inactive. It can
appear in different forms in different cells. For example, you have this oral
epithelial cell.You can see the plasma membrane here demarcating the cell,
this is the nucleus with nuclear envelope, and this is the chromatin,
heterochromatin and euchromatin, now you can see this small granule
adhering to the nuclear envelope and this is called sex chromatin. So it can
appear as a small granule adhering to the nuclear envelope. In neutrophils,
this is a neutrophil because it has multi-loped nucleus, you can see the sex
chromosome or the sex chromatin, as a drumstick projecting from the multi-
loped nucleus. Sex chromatin is sometimes called as Barr body.

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There's something called karyotype, which is the number and type of
chromosomes in an individual, and you know that most of the cells in the body
are somatic, and they have diploid number of chromosomes; so they have
pairs of chromosomes (23 pairs of chromosomes), 22 pairs of those
chromosomes are called autosomes, and then the remaining pair is called sex
chromosomes. Remember that the chromosomes of each of these pairs have
the same forms of genes and therefore they are called homologous. Sperm
cells and mature oocytes have half the diploid number present in somatic cells
and therefore they are called haploid, they do not have pairs, they have
individual chromosomes, they have 22 autosomes and one sex chromosome;
because each pair of chromosomes has been separated during meiosis.

Interphase is the period between mitoses (-sēz/ plural of mitosis), mitosis is the
cell division and so interphase is the period between cell divisions to prepare
the cell for the division. So we can expect that during interphase DNA is
replicated, centrosomes and centrioles are duplicated, and then, it's just an
observation, that the nucleolus is commonly seen in the cells during
interphase.

Mitosis can be subdivided into four phases; prophase, metaphase, anaphase

and telophase. These are important for the lab part; next time in the lab you
will be seeing them under the light microscope. Now, in prophase,
centrosomes - we talked about them in the intermediate filaments - they are
pairs of centrioles in non-dividing form, so they have duplicated in the
interphase, and in the prophase they are ready now to move and migrate to
opposite poles of the cell. Now, what is the aim of mitosis or cell division? It's
to divide the cell in two cells, so keep in mind that all of these phases are now
going on in order to make a product of two cells. So originally there was one
centrosome, in the interphase it duplicated, in the prophase those two
centrosomes moved to opposite poles of the cell.
So this is the cell, this is one pole and this is the other pole, microtubules of
the mitotic spindle appear, nucleolus disappears because there's no need for
the transcriptional activity which's stopped, and then the nuclear envelope
fragments as a result of the nuclear lamina and pore complexes disassembly.
Chromosomes condense and become visible, of course each of them consists
of two sister chromatin.

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Now, in metaphase, meta is like mida, so now the chromosomes that you
already have will be aligned in the mida of the cell, which is the equator of the
cell. So chromosomes are first attached to the mitotic spindle's microtubules
by protein complexes called kinetochores which are located at a restricted
area or region of the chromatin called centromere. Now chromosomes are
aligned at the equatorial plane of the cell, which is now more spherical.
Remember, this is centromere, this is another one, these are the microtubules
of the mitotic spindle and these are the chromosomes. Now the microtubules
of the spindle are attached to the chromosomes by protein complexes called
kinetochores. This is just a scanapick representation, so it's just a drawing.

Under the light microscope you can see the cell, this is a centrosome and this
is another one, these are the chromosomes, these are the microtubules and
this is the mitotic spindle. Of course you cannot see the kinetochores.

In anaphase, ana means separation, so the chromosomes will separate now by

being pulled by the kinetochores to opposite poles of the mitotic spindle or the
cell. At the same time the kinetochores are pulled away toward the poles, the
spindle poles also move away from each other.

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Telophase is the last phase, so now we can see the real division. First, the
microtubules depolymerize. The microtubules connect the chromosomes to
the poles of the mitotic spindle, so now they depolymerize because there's no
need for them anymore, right? We have two sets of chromosomes! Then the
cell pinches in two by-constructions, there's a belt like contractive ring here at
the equator of the cell, it's construction results in the formation of the
cleavage furrow. Now transcription resumes, nucleoli appear, and nuclear
lamina and nuclear envelope reassemble.

Here, you have this under the light microscope; it's like two daughter cells that
are connected to each other, and you can recognize the cleavage furrow.

Cell renewal, is the continuous cell division and death of cell in the different
tissues. It occurs in most tissues except for nerve tissue and cardiac muscle
cells.

Stem cells are important for tissue renewal. They are small population of
undifferentiated cells to serve to renew the differentiated cells of tissue as

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needed. Stem cells divide asymmetrically, producing two cells; the first one is
another stem cell, like the parent cell, and the other one is called progenitor or
transit amplifying cell, which is committed to differentiation. This progenitor
cell deposes few more times at more rapid rate, eventually stopping dividing
and becoming fully differentiated.

That's all :D

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‫الحمد ل‬

I had no access to the slides, so I've tried googlin' sm images …

Good luck ^^
Done by Hadeel Husam Al-Deen

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