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Cells question

Can anyone please help me with these questions I'm losing the will!! :angry:

So it's part of my assignment, which asks us to research the cell types in three different organs (liver, heart and skin) and to include the following:

a) Explain how these cells combine to give the various tissues and finally come together to produce a functioning organ.

b) Why do the cells in this organ have different sizes and surface areas?

I am completely and utterly stuck!

I have reasearched the types of cells, their functions and what tissue type they make but these two questions I just don't understand how to answer them & I can't find any info online.

For Liver I have the following cells: hepatocytes, Kupffer cells, stellate cells & liver sinusoidal endothelial cells.

For the heart I have the following cells: cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells and cardiac fibroblasts

And for the skin (which I am most stuck on!): keratinocytes, merkel cells, melanocytes, langerhans (epidermal) and lymphocytes, mast cells and macrophages (dermal)

Anyone??
Reply 1
Part a I would assume it's talking about things such as the glycoproteins on the cells which bind to its complementary binding sites on the target cell (which would be identical to the cell that is binding) as they help to form connective tissues which effectively forms an organ.

Part b I'm guessing it's because different cells have different functions and so need to be different sizes, despite being on the same organ ie in the kidney you have the hepatocytes, which make up most of the mass so obviously need to have a large surface area and a large size, and kupffer cells which are elongated as they're macrophages, so need to adapt their shape to engulf microbes.

Those are two pretty generic answers to the questions you asked but you could apply them to the examples you've given. Not sure about the amount of detail you need as I'm not sure if you're doing A Level or a degree - can't really help you with a degree unfortunately!

Also, not sure if they're 100% correct as I'm on my gap year so haven't done biology in a while :smile: Let me know if you need any more help - I should probably start revising soon anyway since I'm retaking.
Original post by nika02
Part a I would assume it's talking about things such as the glycoproteins on the cells which bind to its complementary binding sites on the target cell (which would be identical to the cell that is binding) as they help to form connective tissues which effectively forms an organ.

Part b I'm guessing it's because different cells have different functions and so need to be different sizes, despite being on the same organ ie in the kidney you have the hepatocytes, which make up most of the mass so obviously need to have a large surface area and a large size, and kupffer cells which are elongated as they're macrophages, so need to adapt their shape to engulf microbes.

Those are two pretty generic answers to the questions you asked but you could apply them to the examples you've given. Not sure about the amount of detail you need as I'm not sure if you're doing A Level or a degree - can't really help you with a degree unfortunately!

Also, not sure if they're 100% correct as I'm on my gap year so haven't done biology in a while :smile: Let me know if you need any more help - I should probably start revising soon anyway since I'm retaking.


There aren't hepatocytes in the kidney bro haha
Reply 3
Original post by AortaStudyMore
There aren't hepatocytes in the kidney bro haha


My bad - was thinking of the liver, which would have made sense if you read the rest of the explanation :smile:
Original post by nika02
My bad - was thinking of the liver, which would have made sense if you read the rest of the explanation :smile:


Yh I knew what you meant, but the person who asked the question might not have! :P
Reply 5
Original post by AortaStudyMore
Yh I knew what you meant, but the person who asked the question might not have! :P


Good point! My apologies to the OP :smile:

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