Chapter 1 - Cell structure and function

Abstract

Almost every medical student in the United Kingdom, and in many other countries, begins his or her studies with a course on basic cellular structure and function. Such courses are often designed to help students from a variety of educational backgrounds to appreciate the concepts and vocabulary central to all of the life sciences. Over time this core knowledge will be supplemented by other, more specific, areas of medical science until the point is reached at which learners can apply their scientific understanding to those processes of clinical reasoning that lead to diagnosis and treatment. Medical science assists the process of diagnosis by explaining how underlying disease states produce characteristic symptoms and signs. It also facilitates safer treatment by explaining many of the properties, both beneficial and deleterious, of the increasing range of oft en potent therapeutic agents used in clinical management. This chapter poses questions about the basic chemicals of life: proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. It also covers significant features of the cell membrane and cellular organelles as well as cell division, cellular differentiation, and cell death. Understanding the basic principles of intracellular and intercellular communication and regulation provides the foundation for appreciating the role that these processes play in normal and abnormal neural and hormonal control, which will be considered in more detail in later chapters. All of these topics will eventually contribute to a medical student’s grasp of normal structure and function and how it becomes disturbed in disease. The current chapter also includes questions on basic pharmacokinetics. Knowing how each drug works — that is to say its kinetics and mode of action — is a first step in learning to prescribe safely. Other important principles will be added later in the medical student learning process: for example, the indications and contraindications for the use of a drug; any unwanted side-effects; the route of administration and dosages to produce optimal effects. All of this information must be mastered to help prevent the prescribing errors that are all too common in clinical practice.