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    Cells, Tissue, and Skin, Third Edition
    Cells, Tissue, and Skin, Third Edition
    Cells, Tissue, and Skin, Third Edition
    Ebook174 pages1 hour

    Cells, Tissue, and Skin, Third Edition

    By Donna Bozzone and Douglas Light

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    Cells are the smallest units capable of sustaining life, and they make up virtually every aspect of the human body. From the strands of hair at the top of the head to the nails on fingers and toes, every structure of the human body is composed of cells. Groups of cells form tissues and organs, which allow the body to function as an organized system. Skin, the body’s largest organ, forms a waterproof barrier that provides protection against invading microorganisms and acts as a sensory and thermoregulatory structure. Cells, Tissues, and Skin, Third Edition explores the properties of each of these components in our bodies. Packed with full-color photographs and illustrations, this absorbing book provides students with sufficient background information through references, websites, and a bibliography.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChelsea House
    Release dateAug 1, 2021
    ISBN9781646937165
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      Book preview

      Cells, Tissue, and Skin, Third Edition - Donna Bozzone

      title

      Cells, Tissue, and Skin, Third Edition

      Copyright © 2021 by Infobase

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information, contact:

      Chelsea House

      An imprint of Infobase

      132 West 31st Street

      New York NY 10001

      ISBN 978-1-64693-716-5

      You can find Chelsea House on the World Wide Web

      at http://www.infobase.com

      Contents

      Chapters

      Cells: The Basis of Life

      Cell Membranes: Biological Barriers

      Movement Through Cell Membranes

      Cell Cytoplasm

      The Nucleus: The DNA Storage Center

      Tissues: When Cells Get Together

      Skin: The Body's Largest Organ

      Skin Derivatives

      Skin Disorders

      Support Materials

      Glossary

      Bibliography

      Further Resources

      About the Authors

      Index

      Chapters

      Cells: The Basis of Life

      Cells are the basic units of structure and function in all living organisms. Some organisms, such as bacteria and protozoa, consist of only a single cell. In contrast, complex organisms like human beings are composed of more than 35 trillion cells. Just one drop of human blood contains about five million red blood cells.

      Cells Vary Widely in Size and Shape

      Although most cells are microscopic, they do vary in size. For instance, human sperm cells are only about 0.0002 inches long and 0.00012 inches wide (about 5 micrometers [μm] long, 3 μm wide), whereas human ova, or egg cells, are more than 20 times bigger with a diameter of 100 μm.¹

      Cells also vary in shape, which reflects their particular function. Neurons, the cells that make nerves, for example, typically have long, threadlike extensions that transmit impulses from one part of the body to another. Epithelial cells, which compose the outer layers of the skin, can be flattened and tightly packed like floor tiles, forming a protective layer for underlying cells. Muscle cells have structures well-suited for generating force by contracting, or shortening. Red blood cells, which carry oxygen from the lungs to every cell in the body, are biconcave and disk-shaped, whereas some kidney cells resemble a cube. All in all, the human body has more than 200 different types of cells.

      The Discovery of Cells

      Because of their small size, the discovery of cells and their structure had to wait for the invention of the compound microscope, which occurred in the late 16th century. Zacharias Jansen, a Dutch optician, is usually given credit for making the first compound microscope in 1590. During the mid-17th century, the English scientist Robert Hooke looked at thinly sliced cork with a simple microscope. He observed tiny compartments, which he termed cellulae, the Latin word for small rooms. Although Hooke's initial observations were of dead cork, his name for the compartment he observed is preserved in the term, cell. In the late 17th century, the Dutch business person and part-time naturalist Anton van Leeuwenhoek constructed magnifying lenses that provided clarity that had not been previously possible. With these new lenses, he observed very small animalcules in scrapings of tartar from his own teeth, as well as protozoa from a variety of water samples.

      In the early nineteenth century, the German botanist Matthias Schleiden, who also studied cells with a microscope, proposed that the nucleus might have something to do with cell development. During the same time period, the German zoologist Theodor Schwann theorized that animals and plants consist of cells and that cells have an individual life of their own. Rudolf Virchow, a German physiologist who studied cell growth and reproduction, suggested all cells come from preexisting cells. His proposal was actually revolutionary for the time because it challenged the widely accepted theory of spontaneous generation, which held that living organisms could arise spontaneously from nonliving material such as garbage.

      By the middle of the nineteenth century, the scientific community developed several important principles that today make up the cell theory. The first of these principles is that every living organism is composed of one or more cells. The second is that cells are the smallest units that have all the properties of life. The third is that all cells come from preexisting cells.

      Microscopes

      Modern microscopes have dramatically increased our ability to observe cell structure. Light microscopes use two or more sets of highly polished glass lenses to bend light rays to illuminate a specimen, thereby enlarging its image. Consequently, in order to be seen, a specimen must be thin enough for light to pass through it. Because cells are 60%-80% water, they are usually colorless and clear. This, in turn, makes it difficult to observe the various unpigmented structures of cells. This problem can be overcome by exposing cells to stains (dyes), which color some cell parts but not others.

      Because staining usually kills cells, it was a challenge to observe living cells in detail. Fortunately, several technological advancements allowed for the development of new kinds of light microscopy to address this challenge. For example, there are different types of microscopes that refract, or bend, light to create contrast without staining. These microscopes use phase-contrast or Nomarksi optics. With Nomarski optics, for example, a beam of polarized light is split in two by a prism, and then both beams are projected through a specimen at slightly different angles. When the beams are later combined, they exhibit bright and dark interference patterns that highlight areas in cells having differing thicknesses. Such specialized optics enhance the usefulness of light microscopes dramatically.

      Two factors need to be considered when evaluating the effectiveness of a microscope: first, the microscope's ability to magnify images and, second, its ability to resolve them. Magnification means making an image appear larger in size. Resolution, a measure of clarity, refers to the ability of a microscope to show as separate, two points that are close together. If a microscope magnified an image without providing sufficient resolution, the image would be large but not sharp. Details would not be observable.

      The human eye cannot resolve details smaller than about 0.0039 inches (99 μm), whereas the resolution of a light microscope is about 500 times greater, making it possible to observe objects the size of small bacteria. Nonetheless, light microscopes have an inherent resolution limitation because of the physical nature of light. Light, a form of electromagnetic radiation, has wavelike properties. Wavelength refers to the distance between two wave crests. If the size of a cell structure is less than one-half the wavelength of the illuminating light, the structure will be invisible when viewed through a microscope. As a result, light microscopes are not useful for observing objects smaller than several hundred nanometers.

      Electron microscopes use a different technology that allows scientists to overcome some of the limitations of light microscopy. Because electron microscopes use a beam of electrons to illuminate a specimen instead of light, they have much greater magnifying and resolving powers. Although electrons are particles, they also have wavelike properties. A stream of electrons has a wavelength about 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light. This shorter wavelength allows electron microscopes to resolve images down to about 0.5 nanometers (1 μm equals, 1,000 nanometers) in size. However, because a beam of electrons cannot pass through glass, its path is focused by a magnetic field. Therefore, specimens must be placed in a vacuum; otherwise molecules of air would deflect the electron beam.

      Higher energy corresponds to a shorter wavelength and higher frequency, while lower energy corresponds to longer wavelengths and lower frequency. The visible portion of the spectrum is shown; not to scale.

      Source: Infobase Learning.

      There are two main kinds of electron microscopes. A transmission electron microscope, or TEM, accelerates a beam of electrons through a specimen, which allows us to see structures within a cell. In contrast, a scanning electron microscope, or SEM, moves a narrow beam of electrons across

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