Question

1. Inflammation is generally a protective response, which would normally be beneficial. Is it an exclusively beneficial response? Explain 2 pts

2. You are a physician and your patient has had a heart attack resulting in decreased blood flow to the heart tissue. Once blood flow is reestablished, what might be a major concern? 2pts

3. One of the first steps in inflammation is the development of increased adhesiveness of neutrophils to the endothelium cells of venules. How does this occur? Give details 3 pts

4. What approach might stop the P- and E-selectin-mediated step in inflammation, thus blocking the process? 2pts

5. What sequence of events is triggered by the initial adhesion of neutrophils? 2pts

6. For no known reason, a person is found to make autoimmune antibodies against the ?2 subunit of leukocyte integrins. What symptoms, if any, is s/he likely to exhibit? (2pts each)

How might leukocyte adhesion deficiency be treated?

How might antibodies against the ?2 subunit of integrins prove useful medically?

7. Cancer cells from a person suffering from malignant melanoma are analyzed and found to have an elevated ability to bind to laminin; they also secrete much higher than normal levels of a certain proteolytic enzyme activity. How would these differences from normal, control cells promote metastasis of these cancer cells? Explain 4 pts

8. Why would cells that express less E-cadherin be more likely to become malignant and give rise to epithelial cell tumors? Explain 3 pts

9. What would happen if you were able to inject the gene for ?5?1 integrin (a fibronectin receptor) into some tumor cells in such a way that it was expressed extremely efficiently? Explain 3pts

Answer 1

1) Inflammation is natural protective response of the body. It can acute or chronic. Acute inflammation occurs in response to the harmful stimuli (Such as toxins, infections, injuries etc.) & is beneficial as it helps to block the harmful microorganisms and repair the wound. It lasts only a few days. But chronic inflammation, which is continuously persistent, is harmful for body. It's associated with major diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease etc. During chronic inflammation continual free radicals can be produced that can potentially damage the DNA & contributing to disease. Thus it is not an exclusively beneficial response.