Normal cell

Abstract

The mental image of a cell as akin to a water filled balloon with bits of assorted size floating around freely is so conceptual wrong that to hold on to it will prevent you from ever understand molecular medicine. The cell is an incredibly complex structure that senses it environment and respond to it in increasingly surprising ways: It knows up from down in the sense that it orientates structures in relation to basal cell to cell adhesion microstructures, to maintaining opposing surface luminal integratory by producing huge repeating peptides drenched in sugars (mucins) that prevent cells coming close to each other and sticking. The multiple scaffolding polypeptides inside not only holds the cell shape but senses cell to cell contacts, regulate solutes and organelle trafficking, allow tissue or individual cell contraction and movement. These cytoskeletal core and associated proteins are controlled by, but equally regulate, gene expression. The deregulation of multiple proteins implicit in the functioning of this highly organised structured and yet adaptive cell, often leads to dysplasia and eventually cancer. The more cancer genes we discover, the more we learn about another complex control and yet key, system of the collective we simply term as “the cell”.