At times, you may inadvertently bite your lip or scrape your knee, yet remarkably, within a few days, the injury tends to heal. Is this phenomenon akin to magic? Or is there a scientific explanation behind it?
Every passing moment, an essential phenomenon unfolds within your body—cell division. This continuous process sees cells multiplying: one cell splits into two, then those two divide into four, and the cycle continues. Known as "cell division" or "cell reproduction," this mechanism generates new cells as old ones divide. The capacity for cells to undergo division stands as a distinctive trait among living organisms.
Mitosis is like a cell's way of making a photocopy of itself and then splitting into two identical copies. This process ensures that each new cell gets all the instructions it needs to function correctly. Imagine mitosis as a choreographed dance routine for cells. They go through different moves, like condensing their genetic material, lining up in the middle of the cell, and then splitting apart gracefully.
Mitosis plays a crucial role in healing wounds and repairing damaged tissues in the body. It's like the body's own repair mechanism, making sure everything gets back in order after an injury.
What causes cells to divide?
Cell division occurs for various purposes. For instance, in instances such as skinning your knee, cells undergo division to replenish worn-out, deceased, or impaired cells. Additionally, cell division facilitates the growth of living organisms. This growth doesn't result from cells enlarging; rather, it stems from cells continuously dividing to generate increasingly more cells. In the human body, close to two trillion cells undergo division on a daily basis.
How do cells know when to divide?
In cell division, the cell that is dividing is called the "parent" cell. The parent cell divides into two "daughter" cells. The process then repeats in what is called the cell cycle.
Cells regulate their division by communicating with each other using chemical signals from special proteins called cyclins. These signals act like switches to tell cells when to start dividing and later when to stop dividing. It is important for cells to divide so you can grow and so your cuts can heal. It is also important for cells to stop dividing at the right time. If a cell can not stop dividing when it is supposed to stop, this can lead to what we call cancer.
Some cells, like skin cells, are constantly dividing. We need to continuously make new skin cells to replace the skin cells we lose. Did you know we lose 30,000 to 40,000 dead skin cells every minute? That means we lose around 50 million cells every day. This is a lot of skin cells to replace, making cell division in skin cells is so important. Other cells, like nerve and brain cells, divide much less often. (Bianconi E., et al)
Mitosis is a team effort. The cell's components, like the nucleus, chromosomes, and cytoplasm, all work together to ensure a smooth division process. Just like quality control in a factory, cells have checkpoints during mitosis to make sure everything is going according to plan. If something isn't right, the process pauses or even stops to fix the issue.
To summarize, there are 5 phases of mitosis:
Prophase, Prometaphase, Metaphase, Anaphase, and Telophase.
How many cells are in your body?
The journey of human life commences from a solitary cell, commonly referred to as an egg. As you progress into adulthood, the count of cells within your body surges into the trillions. This count varies based on individual size, with biologists estimating it to hover around 37 trillion cells. Indeed, that figure is expressed in trillions.
Mitosis is part of the life cycle of cells. It's how cells grow, divide, and replace old or damaged cells, keeping our bodies functioning properly. Mitosis isn't just for humans. It's a fundamental process that occurs in all living organisms, from plants to animals to single-celled organisms like bacteria. It's a universal phenomenon that keeps life going on Earth.
For educational purposes only - not to be taken for medical advice.
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