How Does Cell Development Cause Diseases?

From growing muscles and repairing bones to restoring damaged tissue in the lungs and other organs, cell development is fundamental to life. While new cell growth is normal and is an important part of replacing dead cells and maintaining key bodily functions, it can become an issue when proliferation spirals out of control.

Cancer and unchecked cell growth

Cancer is one of the most widely recognised examples of the relationship between cell growth and disease. It occurs when genetic mutations accelerate cell division and result in the growth of tumours. These clusters of abnormal cells can be benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous).

Malignant tumours are dangerous as they not only grow in place but can also invade neighbouring tissues and travel to other places in the body through a process called metastasis. The human body is made up of trillions of cells, meaning cancerous cell growth can occur almost anywhere.

Negative and positive feedback mechanisms

Negative feedback mechanisms play an important role in regulating cell growth. During normal proliferation, the body receives a negative feedback mechanism when dead cells have been replaced and the growth or repair process is complete. If the body receives a positive feedback loop instead of a negative signal, cell growth can accelerate unchecked and result in the formation of tumours.

While some abnormal cell growth activity is harmless, for example hyperplasia calluses that may form on your fingertips from playing the guitar, in some cases it can be extremely dangerous.  

Alzheimer’s and unregulated cell death

Alzheimer’s is another disease linked to cell development, though unlike cancer it’s driven by unregulated cell death. The progressive neurologic disorder disrupts brain cell activity, breaking connections between neurons which results in cellular death. This causes the brain to shrink and results in a decline in cognitive, behavioural and social skills.

Despite being an aggressive disease, scientists are continually making new progress in Alzheimer’s research. The recent discovery of nanoscale deposits of elemental metals in the brain tissue of deceased Alzheimer’s patients marked an exciting leap forward scientists at the University of Warwick.

“This is a fascinating and unexpected discovery, enabled by the sensitivity and precision of the synchrotron techniques we have used to study these human-brain-derived samples,” says Professor Joanna Collingwood, a researcher at the University of Warwick. “We know that certain living systems can produce elemental forms of metals, so it will be important to discover if these arise from equivalent but previously undiscovered pathways in humans, or if the metallic forms arise as a direct consequence of disease.”

Advancing cancer research

Studies into cellular functioning are critical to advancing cancer research. Dr Ben Goult, a structural mechanobiologist at the University of Kent, recently made an exciting new discovery concerning the CDK1 protein coding gene.

“The potential of this discovery is huge as it provides a new understanding of how cell division is coordinated within the confines of a complex multicellular organism,” says Goult. “Cell division needs to be tightly coupled to the cell adhesion to allow our cells to divide without disrupting the integrity of our tissues and organs. This research is vital in our understanding of other cellular diseases and of cancer’s ability to spread within the human body.”

Find out more about the breakthrough findings in ‘Mechanism Discovery lends understanding of Cellular Functioning’.