Problem
In regards with the cell cycle what is the difference between a normal cell and a cancerous cell.
Backround
Background: Cancer is a disease that continues to affect millions of lives daily. Scientists are looking for ways to put an end to the disease without harming the human. Cancer is a disease in which a cell continues to divide uncontrollably. As they continue to divide uncontrollably they begin to pile up on top of each other. According to the American Cancer Society and National Cancer Society, in 2007 160,3900 people had died from lung cancer, 15,280 people had died from ovarian cancer, and 11,210 people had died from stomach cancer. Out of these three cancers 186,880 people died during 2007. This is why scientists want to find the cure for cancer.
Hypothesis
I believe that cancerous cell tissues divide more often than normal cell tissues. If my hypothesis is true,then, I will see more cells divided in cancerous cell tissue compared to normal cell tissue.
Materials
- Pencil
- Clipboard
- Paper
- Safety Goggles
- Gloves
- Normal and Cancerous Cell Tissue. (Ovary,Lung,and Stomach)
- Microscope with slides and coverslips
- Knife (for disssecting the tissue)
Procedure
- Get your pencil, paper, and clipboard.
- Put on your safety goggles and gloves.
- Get your Normal and Cancerous Cell Tissue; cut off a piece of the Ovary tissue, Lung tissue, and Stomach tissue.
- Start with the normal cell tissues. Make sure that you view each normal Ovary, Lung, and Stomach tissue individually. Then once you chose which one you will begin with put it under the microscope.
- Take notes or draw what you see.
- Repeat the previous procedure you did in steps 4 and 5 except instead of the cell tissues being normal they will be cancerous.
- Finally you will compare your notes or drawings from the cancerous cell tissue and the normal cell tissue.
Data
Below is the data table for the number of cells that are dividing, the cells at rest, and what phase that they are in.
Below is the graph using the data from the table above
Journal Questions
- In my observation, the difference between the two cell tissues is that normal cells, while dividing, spent some time at rest and maintained a normal cell cycle. Cancerous cells however spent a majority of the time dividing and less time at rest.
- I think that the mitotic index was the time that was spent during cell division. I believe that the ratio of time spent dividing for normal cells was 8:10. The ratio for the time spent at rest was 2:10. With cancerous cells,however, they spent a 9.5:10 ratio dividing and a .5:10 ratio at rest.
- I believe that muscles are the ones with the highest mitotic index of 9:10. I believe this because with muscles, as you build them up, they divide so that they can get larger. Mitosis is the part of the cell cycle in which the cell divides. Therefore I believe that muscles have the highest mitotic index since it divides often as you work them out.
Conclusion
After completing my experiment, it seems that my hypothesis was correct. I believed that the way to distinguish a normal cell from a cancerous cell was to look at the amount of time spent dividing, and that the cancerous cell would be dividing more than the normal cells. The highest percentage in total for cancerous cells at rest was 10%. That means that 90% of the time cancerous cells were dividing. In total for normal cells the percentage for amount of time at rest was 35% . This means that 65% of the time the cells were dividing. This proves that normal spend more time at rest compared to cancerous cells. An unaviodable error during the experiment might have been that the cells were damaged while sampling them and the cells could have had some sickness in them.