The Cell Cycle and Cancer
I. Purpose
http://www.glencoe.com/sites/common_assets/advanced_placement/mader10e/virtual_labs_2K8/labs/BL_03/
In this experiment, you will find the similarities and the differences between regular cells and cancer cells.
In this experiment, you will find the similarities and the differences between regular cells and cancer cells.
II. Background (Extra Credit)
Cancer cells are not able to respond to the signals that regulate cell growth. Cyclins regulate the timing of the cell. It is significant to study this because having knowledge about cancer cells, even a little, can help you understand the experiment more.
III. Hypothesis (Virtual Lab Online)
I believe normal cell tissues will look different than cancerous cell tissues with regard to phases of the cell cycle in that normal cells will be in interphase and cancer cells will be in M phase (the phase where cell division takes place; mitosis and cytokinesis) because cancer cells cannot control their growth and do not respond to the signals that regulate the growth. If my hypothesis is correct, I will see a greater percentage of cells dividing in cancer tissues versus normal cell tissues.
IV. Materials
- Cancerous Ovary Tissue Sample on Slide with Cover Slip
- Normal Ovary Tissue Sample on Slide with Cover Slip
- Cancerous Lung Tissue Sample on Slide with Cover Slip
- Normal Lung Tissue Sample on Slide with Cover Slip
- Cancerous Stomach Tissue Sample on Slide with Cover Slip
- Normal Stomach Tissue Sample on Slide with Cover Slip
- Microscope
V. Procedure
VI. Data
The data table below lists the number of cells per area present in various phases of the cell cycle observed in three different types of tissue in both normal and cancerous cells.
Below is a graph of the data I collected (phases of the cell cycle, x-axis v. tissue types, y -axis).
VII. Journal Questions
- A difference between normal and cancer cells is that more normal cells are in interphase than cancer cells. Also, cancer cells are more likely to be in M phase.
- Cancerous tissues would have a higher mitotic index because cancer cells cannot control their growth, so those cells are uncontrollably dividing.
- I believe skin tissues would have the highest mitotic index because skin cells replace themselves often if your skin has a cut or gets damaged; it repairs itself and heals.
VIII. Conclusion
In this experiment, my hypothesis was correct. Cancer cells looked different than regular cells and the cancer cells were mostly in M phase because cancer cells divide uncontrollably due to the fact that they cannot respond to signals that regulate the cell growth, while normal cells were mostly in interphase. Observations that I saw were that there are more cancerous cells in M phase in all of the tissue types than regular cells. Also, the regular cells were mostly in interphase than cancer cells in the tissue types. The percentage of cells in rest is higher than the percentage of cells dividing in the tissue types. The only thing that I would have changed to make this experiment more accurate is to have the same amount of cells (20 cells) in all tissue types instead of having a different amount of cells in each tissue type.