ACENA, JOBELLE C.

NORMAL CELL GROWTH

CELL CYCLE

Acena, Jobelle C.

Union Christian College

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Normal Cell Growth and Cell Cycle

In normal tissues, the rates of new cell growth and old cell death are kept in balance.
Every day thousands of our body’s cells die off. Every day exactly the right number of exactly
the right types of cells takes the place of those that die off. And if everything is in proper
working order, we never even notice.

Normal Cell Growth

The Cell Cycle

To illustrate this process, let’s look at the cells of the epidermis (the outermost layer of the skin).
The outer layer of the skin is approximately two dozen cells thick. Under normal circumstances,
cells at the bottom of this layer, called the basal layer, divide at exactly the same rate as dead
cells are shed from the surface. Each time one of these basal cells divides, it produces two cells.
One remains in the basal layer and goes on to divide again. The other migrates out of the basal
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layer and can no longer divide. This way, the number of dividing cells in the basal layer, and the
number of non-dividing cells in the outer layer stays the same. Image 1 illustrates normal cell
growth.

In order for this process to unfold with such precision, 2 important cellular processes must
balance each other perfectly:

 Proliferation
 Apoptosis

Proliferation refers to the growth and reproduction of cells. Apoptosis (cell suicide) is the

mechanism by which old or damaged cells normally self-destruct. If these carefully balanced
processes are disrupted and cells proliferate uncontrollably, fail to die off at the appropriate time,
or both, the end result may be cancer. Image 2 illustrates the difference between normal cell
division and cancerous cell division.
Image 2:

In order to proliferate, both normal and cancerous cells must undergo the process of cell division.
This process is the end result of the cell cycle. The cell cycle has 2 major phases:

 Mitosis
 Interphase

Mitosis is the process by which a parent cell produces a pair of genetically identical daughter
cells. It is part of the normal cell cycle. The cell cycle is divided into 2 distinct periods:

 Interphase (cell growth)

 Mitotic phase (cell division)

Interphase is the period of a cell’s life when it carries out its normal growth and metabolic
activities. It is also the time during which a cell undergoes a closely ordered sequence of
activities in preparation for cell division.
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Interphase is made up of 3 sub-phases. During the G1 phase, the cell produces the proteins
needed to copy the cellular DNA, which occurs during the second S phase of the cell cycle.
There must be 2 identical copies of the DNA so that one copy is passed to each of the daughter
cells. During the final G2 phase, which lies between the replication of the DNA and the
beginning of mitosis (when the cell actually divides), the cell produces proteins needed for cell
division.
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Reference

Normal Cell Growth and Development. (n.D.) Beth Israel Lahey Health Winchester Hospital.

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