Integration Assignments – Flashcards

Jacob is constantly telling his friends how sad it is that he sees so much skin cancer at his office—especially since so much of it could be prevented through the use of sunscreen. He is a dermatologist, and today he had two patients come in with what appeared to be cancerous moles. He removed the moles on both patients and prepared samples for histological examination. Jacob wanted to know whether either of the cancers had metastasized and gained the ability to move throughout the body. Tissue from Patient 1 included fibroid, spindle-shaped cells that resembled mesenchymal cells. Tissue from Patient 2 included many layers of thin, flat cells. Chemical assays showed that Patient 2's cells were producing keratin and a glycoprotein called E-cadherin, which is a cell adhesion protein. Patient 1's cells were not producing those materials. Based on these results, Jacob realized that, sadly, one of his patients would require much more intensive treatment Jacob should be concerned that one of his patient's tumors has which of the following things? What effect do you think E-cadherin would most likely have on cancerous cells in a tumor on the skin? One of Jacob's patients has "fibroid" cells in the tissue of the tumor. Those cells are surrounding themselves in protein fibers. Which of the four major types of tissue is this characteristic most similar to?

After her 65th birthday party, Helen finally agreed to talk to her doctor as her daughter had insisted. Her daughter had been on her case for almost a year about the soreness Helen felt from time to time. The soreness was particularly bad in her spine, knees, and hips. To Helen, this was just a part of getting old. She remembered her parents complaining of the same kind of soreness, so this did not seem unusual or like anything to worry about. At the same time, Helen knew that things had changed a lot since back then, and perhaps there were some simple solutions that would make her feel better. Helen's doctor suggested that they try out a relatively new tool for diagnosing her problem. She had a special MRI done, which is a type of medical imaging. Her doctor said the MRI would look for the levels of chemicals called proteoglycans. Proteoglycans are protein/carbohydrate complexes made by chondrocytes. The proteoglycans make up part of the extracellular matrix of connective tissues. They perform a variety of functions, including regulating the movement of chemicals in connective tissue and maintaining the stability of collagen. They also play an important role in binding to water molecules, which helps to maintain the water content of connective tissues. Helen's doctor noted low proteoglycan levels in the MRI's, but she said that's actually a helpful thing for her to see. Now she can offer up some helpful solutions with more confidence in the problem she's dealing with! Given the information above, Helen most likely has Which part of the vertebral column do you think would be most directly impacted by a reduction in proteoglycans? A loss of proteoglycans could lead to pain in the spine by

Alfredo received three free personal training sessions when he joined the gym a couple months ago. When he first met the trainer, Jessica, he told her he joined the gym mostly to try to increase his arm strength and get better definition in his arm muscles. Jessica proceeded to teach him some basic arm exercises and outlined a schedule for his workouts over the next couple weeks. She instructed him to rotate between three different upper arm exercises using dumbbells. In the first exercise, he gripped the dumbbells with his hands supinated (underhand grip) and flexed his elbows to lift the weights. Alfredo recognized this "arm curl" exercise. In the second exercise, Jessica told him to hold the dumbbells with a semi-supinated grip (thumbs pointed ventrally) and again flex his elbows to lift the weights. She told him this was sometimes called a hammer curl. In the final exercise, Jessica had Alfredo grip the dumbbells with his hands pronated (overhand grip), and again he flexed his elbows to lift the weights. After learning these exercises, Alfredo commented, "What's the point of these three different exercises? It seems like they're all basically the same. I know from my A&P class that the biceps brachii does elbow flexion, so why do I need all these variations when I'm only working out that one muscle?" Jessica smiled at him when she heard this and said, "I think you might need to check your A&P book before your test on the muscle system!" Alfredo believes he is only exercising one muscle (the biceps brachii) when he performs the elbow flexion exercises Jessica told him about. What other muscle is a synergist that also participates in these exercises? Think about the insertions of the muscles involved in elbow flexion and the positioning of the bones in the exercises described. Which of the elbow flexors does doing the "hammer curl" exercise probably emphasize? Which exercise below would be best at exercising the palmaris longus?

In 1982, a biomedical researcher at the University of California, San Francisco named Stanley Prusiner, dropped a bombshell by proposing in a research paper that proteins can cause disease. Dr. Prusiner himself was initially skeptical of his own results, as his initial hypotheses revolved around a new type of virus - not a protein - as the cause of the neurological disease he studied. The disease, called scrapie, is similar to mad cow disease and its equivalent in humans, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. These diseases are not curable, and result in death of cells in the brain. Dr. Prusiner's proposition was so controversial, since it was believed that all pathogens used DNA or RNA, not protein, as the basis for reproducing and spreading. Though Dr. Prusiner received intense criticism and personal attacks, his lab eventually isolated the protein that nearly all biologists now agree is the causative agent of scrapie and other similar brain diseases. The characterization of this protein, called a prion, resulted in Dr. Prusiner being awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine. Prions cause disease due to their misfolded structures. Inside the body, prions create abnormal clumps in the brain characterized by pleated sheets. Since infectious prions may be transmitted by food, careful regulations have been put in place to make sure the nervous systems of cows and other livestock are not used for food. Infectious prions may also be sterilized in tissue through protein hydrolysis and the application of strong acids or bases. The three dimensional folding shape of a prion is probably most determined by An acid would most likely disrupt and sterilize a prion by Protein hydrolysis would most likely disrupt and sterilize a prion by

Beth and her husband are excited to have their first child and start a family. Beth talked to her doctor about getting pregnant and her doctor recommended she get screened for Tay-Sachs disease beforehand. The doctor said Tay-Sachs disease is something she and her husband could pass on to their child if they are carriers. It results from a mutation in the gene for a lysosomal enzyme, and is unfortunately deadly. The doctor said genetic screening has helped to make this disease relatively rare amongst newborns today, but Beth is still confused about what the disease is. If you could look into the cells of someone with Tay-Sachs disease, which of the following problems would you most likely notice? Which organelle below is most involved in modifying a lysosomal enzyme into its fully-functional form? The role of RNA in creating a lysosomal enzyme is to

While taking a food science class in college, your instructor invites a local cattle rancher to give a guest lecture. One of the other students in class is very curious about the "freshness" of meat that he buys at his neighborhood store. He asks the rancher if it would be a good idea for everyone to buy meat directly from the ranch and eat it as soon as possible after the meat is harvested. Surprisingly the rancher says - taken literally the way the student suggested it - that would not be a great idea. He says the meat gets really tough and stiff shortly after it is harvested, and it doesn't even start to get more tender for about 12 hours. Even after the 12 hours, he says most of the meat from his ranch gets aged in a refrigerator for about a week to make it tender enough to sell. That means the "freshest" meat from his ranch might actually not be very good to eat right away. The muscle tissue in the meat would probably not become stiff after death if it still had enough Prior to the death of the cow that the meat came from, the living skeletal muscle cells used energy (hydrolyzed ATP) in order to What chemical changes most likely happen during aging to make meat regain its tenderness?

Every spring Paula noticed local news stories about West Nile virus on her TV. They would show scientists collecting dead birds to look for the virus, and sometimes people were forced to empty their unused swimming pools to prevent mosquitoes from breeding. To Paula, this all seemed like an awful lot of trouble for a tiny little virus. Paula was therefore surprised to hear in A&P class that West Nile virus can affect the spinal cord in severe cases. She knew it was passed along primarily through mosquito bites, and that it could cause flu-like symptoms. She did not realize that, in some individuals, it could also cause meningitis and a degeneration of cells in the anterior gray horn of the spinal cord. Given those severe problems for certain infected people, Paula now understands why public health officials are so worried about West Nile virus! Which of the following is the most reasonable explanation for why meningitis (an infection in the meninges) would damage the spinal cord? If West Nile virus invades the anterior gray horn of the spinal cord, what cells types and parts would most likely be damaged? A patient with severe West Nile virus impacting the anterior gray horn would likely exhibit

Stephanie was diagnosed with scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, when she went for a regular checkup with her doctor in her sophomore year of high school. Her doctor could see the curve in Stephanie's spine through her skin when she bent forward. In order to determine whether Stephanie's curved spine needed treatment, the doctor referred her to an orthopedic specialist. The orthopedic doctor took x-rays of Stephanie's bones to determine the extent of the curve. Stephanie was surprised to learn that he was also very interested in the amount of cartilage in her bones. The orthopedic doctor said he wanted to know how much more her bones were likely to grow in the coming years. If her bones were almost done with their main phase of growth, her scoliosis was more likely to stay stable as it was. If there was a lot of cartilage left in Stephanie's bones, the curve might have a greater potential to change and get worse over the coming years. This information could help to determine the level of treatment the doctor would recommend to Stephanie. In what area of a long bone would it probably be easiest to observe the cartilage the orthopedic doctor refers to? What type of bone growth is the doctor most likely looking for in the example above? The cartilage the doctor is referring to will disappear when

Marcus was fed up with the way his face looked. He had just found some more dark colored spots on his chin, which would add to his already ample collection of pimples. For Marcus, starting high school was stressful enough without also having to worry about his face breaking out. He talked to his doctor about his acne just the other day. The doctor said Marcus should be very diligent about washing his face. She told Marcus the pimples form when his skin grows quickly and makes too much of a protein, called keratin, in the process. The keratin mixes with the oils on his skin to form a cement-like material that can clog up some of his gland pores. Washing his face frequently would help to keep the extra oil and keratin from building up. The doctor also warned Marcus not to irritate or pick at the pimples, even though they might feel painful or pressured. She said he might cause permanent scars if he irritates the pimples too much. She recommended some soaps and lotions that Marcus can use to help combat the acne, and Marcus is excited to finally get some relief by using them. Given that acne relates to "oils" on Marcus' skin, what accessory skin part do you think is most directly related to acne? Once a pimple on Marcus' face begins to heal, what skin cells will divide rapidly to heal any damaged epithelial tissue in the epidermis? If the skin is able to repair itself so efficiently, why might incomplete healing and scarring result if Marcus irritates his pimples?

Mary was excited when she first felt regular contractions, signaling that she would soon meet her new baby. Few physiological activities in the human body are so outwardly awe-inspiring as the birth of a child, particularly for the child's parents! This process usually occurs vaginally in a process referred to as "labor." Mary had read that during labor, her body would go through a number of changes to allow the baby to safely exit her uterus and vagina. She knew that labor would begin with the baby's head stretching the exit to her uterus, called the cervix. Nerve cells in her body would sense this stretching and transmit the message to her brain. Her brain would then produce hormones to stimulate contractions in her uterus, which would further stretch her cervix. That process, which Mary knew had just started in her body, would continue until her cervix was stretched wide enough for her baby to exit. While Mary hoped her child would be born vaginally, as is normally the case, she also realized it wasn't entirely unusual for childbirth to occur via a surgical procedure called a Caesarean section. This would involve a major surgery, but Mary realized it is sometimes necessary for the safety of a baby or a mother. In a Caesarean section, surgeons make a cut into the mother's abdominopelvic cavity. The cut is typically along the transverse plane in the hypogastric region, superior to the inguen. Surgeons locate the uterus dorsal to the bladder and anterior to the rectum. Usually the cut into the uterus is also along the transverse plane just superior to the edge of the bladder. The baby is delivered through that incision. Mary had done some research on this procedure while she was pregnant so that she would understand the various ways her childbirth might progress. For now, though, she tried to relax for what she knew would be a challenging, but ultimately very rewarding, process of labor! The process of labor is an example of a positive feedback loop, because Based on the description of the organs' relative locations, which organ would the surgeons see first if looking into the incision? What other organ are the surgeons likely to find in the hypogastric region?

Lisa recently asked her mom to make her a doctor appointment to figure out what's going on with her hands. Sometimes her hands feel very cold and numb, and at the same time they look extremely pale. She didn't think too much of this for a while, but it seems to be getting worse, and now that she's entering high school, she feels a bit more self conscious about the problem. The doctor told Lisa she appears to have a condition called Raynaud's disease, which isn't all that uncommon. Individuals with Raynaud's disease have excessive or hyperactive alpha-adrenergic receptors, which leads to decreased blood flow in the extremities. This problem doesn't always need treatment, but the doctor determined Lisa's condition was severe enough that they could look into some treatment options. The doctor recommended a drug called Prazosin, which blocks α1 receptors. The doctor told Lisa this should clear up her problems, but that she should pay close attention to how she feels and call if she notices any side effects. Lisa is most likely suffering from hyperactivity in Which side effect below is most likely to result when taking Prazosin? If the doctor prescribed a different drug that blocked all alpha receptors, what additional side effect might Lisa experience?

Physicians that specialize in neurology must develop the skills to visualize the various membrane proteins, ions, and neurotransmitters associated with the transmission of signals across neurons. Numerous poisons and pharmaceutical drugs act by blocking channel proteins or mimicking important molecules that interact with neurons. Pretend that you are a neurologist considering the cases of the three patients described below. Each patient is concerned about a different chemical that impacts neural physiology. Visualize the ways the chemicals might affect membrane potentials or neurotransmission, and make some predictions about the patients by answering the questions that follow. Patient 1: Jasmine is a young child whose parents found her chewing on some paint that had chipped off the wall. They don't know how old the pain is, and they're worried Jasmine could have been exposed to lead in the paint - especially if she has been ingesting the paint for a long time. Lead inhibits the release of glutamate by neurons. Patient 2: During a recent dental procedure, Mason was administered Novocain. Novocain is a chemical that blocks sodium channels in the region where it is injected. Now, hours later, Mason is concerned that he accidentally received too high a dose or is having an adverse reaction to the Novocain. Patient 3: Emily was camping with some friends when a spider bit her. She could not definitively identify the spider, but it resembled a poisonous spider that lives in the area. Emily's friends brought her to see you right away, just in case she needs medical attention. The venom of the poisonous spider is known to block gated calcium channels. Which part of a neuron would probably be most affected by lead poisoning? Which part of a neuron would probably be most affected by the application of Novocain? Which of the three chemicals discussed in relation to these patients would prevent an action potential from propagating down an axon?

It was two years ago that Monique was first diagnosed with lung cancer. Doctors felt they caught the cancer fairly early, though, and performed surgery to remove the tumor. Unfortunately, at a recent series of checkups with her oncologist, Monique found out her lung cancer had returned and had spread to her brain. The doctor said she has a small tumor in the right-hand side of her brain that, left unchecked, will eventually put pressure in the areas between her right occipital and temporal lobes. That pressure would impair function in those areas of her brain. Despite all this, the doctor is still somewhat optimistic. She said she would consider some chemotherapies (anticancer drugs that are injected intravenously into the blood) for the recurrent lung cancer. However, she said the brain tumor is a bit trickier to treat as there are few chemotherapies that can effectively reach brain tumors. Monique might therefore need to have the brain tumor removed surgically. Which functional area of Monique's cerebral cortex is most likely to be impacted by the tumor? Based on its location, if Monique's tumor grows, which of the symptoms below is Monique most likely to experience? What might prevent effective chemotherapy drugs from reaching brain tumors?

Ben and Jared were amidst a three-day hike in the mountains when the accident happened. They were backpacking peacefully along a trail, happy that they'd found time to fit in this short vacation, when Ben fell. Part of the trail near a small ridge broke away, and Ben slipped down a small but steep slope. He rolled a few times before coming to rest at the bottom of the slope. Jared carefully made his way down the slope to check on his friend. Ben was conscious, but a bit stunned. He must have hit a rock on the way down since his face was somewhat worse for wear. The left side of his face was already showing signs of bad bruising, and Jared suspected he might have broken some bones. The area starting from Ben's cheekbone and extending back toward his ear looked to be in bad shape, as did the region extending downward from his ear into his jaw. Luckily, Jared had brought along his cell phone and miraculously had service. He called for help and the medical personnel he reached were very glad to find out he was an A&P student. They asked him to describe the locations of any potentially broken bones in as much detail as possible, so they could estimate the severity of the injuries and plan an appropriate response. Assume that Ben did indeed break a bone in the area of his "cheekbone and extending back toward his ear." Which of the following is not a bone in the general area described? Based on the description of Ben's injuries, what bone of the "jaw" do you think Ben might have fractured? Which of the following bone surface markings could indicate the location of the broken cheekbone?

In recent years the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has launched efforts to educate Americans about the dangers of exposure to noisy environments. Doctors have expressed particular concern about the levels of noise children experience early in life. According to some estimates, over 12% of children between the ages of 6 and 19 have suffered damages resulting in permanent hearing deficiencies. Doctors refer to this phenomenon as "noise-induced hearing loss." It can result from brief exposures to extremely loud noises, or from prolonged exposure to noisy environments. Sometimes dangerous exposure to noise seems unavoidable, like the constant hum of traffic experienced by children growing up near highways. More and more frequently, however, children and teenagers elect to expose themselves to loud noises. Cell phones and MP3 players that pump often-loud noise directly into the ears of children cause particular concern for many doctors. Loud noises can physically and chemically stress the cells in the cochlea that sense sound. The cells sensing high pitch sounds are most vulnerable in noise-induced hearing loss, and damage to those cells sometimes results in a very high-pitched ringing in the ears, called tinnitus. If noise exposure kills the sound receptor cells, they do not grow back. This means the damage caused by noisy environments is often permanent, lasting the life of the individual. This also makes noise-induced hearing loss an interesting candidate for stem cell treatments and gene therapies. Biologists are working hard to identify the genes most important to cells in the cochlea, so that they can produce new cells to replace those lost after exposure to noise Consider the "tinnitus" described. The region of the basilar membrane damaged to create this tinnitus is most likely A biologist working to develop stem cell therapies to treat noise-induced hearing loss is probably most interested in growing To treat noise-induced hearing loss with stem cells, the replacement cells we produce definitely must have