BAS 206 – Pathology Assignment 1

Basic Pathological Terms

Pathology: The study of disease. Pathology has been defined as "that branch of medicine
which treats of the essential nature of disease.

Homeostasis: a tendency to stability in the normal body states (internal environment) of

the organism.

Atrophy: a wasting away; a diminution in the size of a cell, tissue, organ, or part.

Hypertrophy: the enlargement or overgrowth of an organ or part due to an increase in size

of its constituent cells.

Hyperplasia: abnormal multiplication or increase in the number of normal cells in normal

arrangement in a tissue.

Metaplasia: the change in the type of adult cells in a tissue to another form of adult cells
that are not normal for that tissue.

Necrosis: the sum of the morphological changes indicative of cell death and caused by
the progressive degradative action of enzymes; it may affect groups of cells or part of a
structure or an organ.

Apoptosis: a morphological pattern of cell death affecting single cells, marked by

shrinkage of the cell, condensation of chromatin, formation of cytoplasmic blebs, and
fragmentation of the cell into membrane-bound apoptotic bodies that are eliminated by
phagocytosis.

Hypoxia: reduction of oxygen supply to tissue below physiological levels despite

adequate perfusion of the tissue by blood.

Ischemia: deficiency of blood in a part, usually due to functional constriction or actual

obstruction of a blood vessel.

Free radical: are atomic or molecular species with unpaired electrons on an otherwise
open shell configuration; usually highly reactive.

Lipofuscin: brown pigment granules composed of lipid-containing residues of lysosomal

digestion. It is considered one of the aging or "wear and tear" pigments; found in the
liver, kidney, heart muscle, adrenals, nerve cells, and ganglion cells. "Liver spots"
commonly associated with aging are superficial dermal lipofuscin deposits.

Heat Shock Proteins: are a group of proteins whose expression is increased when the cells
are exposed to elevated temperatures. This increase in expression is transcriptionally
regulated. This dramatic upregulation of the heat shock proteins induced mostly by Heat
Shock Factor (HSF) is a key part of the heat shock response. Production of high levels of
heat shock proteins can also be triggered by exposure to different kinds of environmental
stress conditions, such as infection, inflammation, exposure of the cell to toxins (ethanol,
arsenic, trace metals and ultraviolet light, among many others), starvation, hypoxia
(oxygen deprivation), nitrogen deficiency (in plants), or water deprivation. Consequently,
the heat shock proteins are also referred to as stress proteins and their up regulation is
sometimes described more generally as part of the stress response.

Steatosis: fatty change in which a single large droplet occupies most of the cell,
displacing the cytoplasm and nucleus to a ring around the droplet.

Senescence: the process or condition of growing old, especially the condition resulting
from the transitions and accumulations of the deleterious aging processes.

Inflammation: a localized protective response elicited by injury or destruction of tissues,

which serves to destroy, dilute, or wall of (sequester) both the injurious agent and the
injured tissue.

Erythema: redness of the skin produced by congestion of the capillaries.

Transudate: are caused by disturbances of hydrostatic or colloid osmotic pressure, not by

inflammation. Medical distinction between transudates and exudates is through the
measurement of the specific gravity of extracted fluid. Specific gravity is used to measure
the protein content of the fluid. The higher the specific gravity, the greater the likelihood
of capillary permeability changes in relation to body cavities.

Exudate: material, such as fluid, cells, or cellular debris, which has escaped from blood
vessels and has been deposited in tissues or on tissue surfaces, usually as a result of
inflammation.

Edema: the presence of abnormally large amounts of fluid in the intercellular tissue
spaces of the body, usually referring to demonstrable amounts in the subcutaneous
tissues.

Angiogenesis: is the physiological process involving the growth of new blood vessels
from pre-existing vessels.

Chemotaxis: in which bodily cells, bacteria, and other single-cell or multicellular

organisms direct their movements according to certain chemicals in their environment.

Phagocytosis: is a form of endocytosis wherein large particles are enveloped by the cell
membrane of a (usually larger) cell and internalized to form a phagosome, or "food
vacuole."

Effusion: the escape of fluid into a part or tissue.

Resolution: the subsidence of a pathologic state.
Scar: are areas of fibrous tissue that replace normal skin after destruction of some of the
dermis. A scar results from the biologic process of wound repair in the skin and other
tissues of the body.

Hyperemia: is the medical condition in which blood congests in a part of the body.

Congestion: excessive or abnormal accumulation of fluid.

Hemorrhage: is the medical term for bleeding.

Hematoma: a collection of blood, generally the result of hemorrhage, or, more

specifically, internal bleeding.

Hemostasis: refers to the physiologic process whereby bleeding is halted.

Thrombosis: is the formation of a clot or thrombus inside a blood vessel, obstructing the
flow of blood through the circulatory system.

Emobolus: occurs when an object (the embolus, plural emboli) migrates from one part of
the body (through circulation) and cause(s) a blockage (occlusion) of a blood vessel in
another part of the body.

Infarction: is necrosis of tissue due to upstream obstruction of its arterial blood supply. It
is the culmination of ischemia.

Shock: is a serious medical condition where the tissue perfusion is insufficient to meet
the required supply of oxygen and nutrients. This hypoperfusional state is a life-
threatening medical emergency.

Neoplasia: is abnormal, disorganized growth in a tissue or organ, usually forming a

distinct mass. Such a growth is called a neoplasm, also known as a tumor.

Benign: can refer to any medical condition which, untreated or with symptomatic therapy,
will not become life-threatening.

Malignant: a clinical term that is used to describe a clinical course that progresses rapidly
to death.

Anaplasia: is a term that refers to the histologic grade of a tumor. Anaplastic tumors are
poorly differentiated, meaning that their cells look primitive and do not resemble normal
cells. Having anaplasia in a tumor usually means that the tumor is malignant, although a
malignant tumor need not be anaplastic.

Dysplasia: is an abnormality in the appearance of cells due to disturbances in the cell

maturation process; is the earliest form of pre-cancerous lesion recognizable in a biopsy.
Metastasis: is the spread of cancer from its primary site to other places in the body (e.g.,
brain, liver).

Protooncogene: is a normal gene that can become an oncogene, either after mutation or
increased expression. Proto-oncogenes code for proteins that help to regulate cell growth
and differentiation.

Cachexia: a profound and marked state of constitutional disorder; general ill health and
malnutrition.