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→Hydropic Degeneration
===Hydropic Degeneration===
===Hydropic Degeneration===
Hydropic degeneration - often indicates severe cellular damage due to viruses and is
a more severe or advanced form of cellular swelling in
which
a. the cells may swell up like a balloon prior to their destruction, or
b. there is a discrete bleb (vacuole) of fluid within the cytoplasm.
a. the former is sometimes called 'ballooning degeneration' and may occur in a variety of
conditions, but particularly viral conditions of epithelial tissue.
The best example is 'Foot and Mouth Disease' where
the virus attacks the stratum spinosum of the epithelium of
the tongue and feet. The affected cells are ballooned up
with water containing the replicating virus. The cells swell
until they burst and the fluid they contain forms
microvesicles (blisters) in this layer of the epithelium
which may later burst, shedding vast quantities of the
virus. When it bursts, the edges of the erosion look
ragged, but within weeks the germinal epithelium at the
base of the erosion regenerates the epithelium, leaving no
trace of a scar.
b. in vacuolar degeneration, the second type, the excess water is transferred to the
endoplasmic reticulum (ER) which swells and eventually fragments, leaving a fluid vacuole
in the cytoplasm. It commonly occurs in cells such as the hepatocyte, renal tubular
epithelium and pancreatic acinar cell which are very metabolically active and have welldeveloped
pumping mechanisms.
===Cellular Fatty Change===
===Cellular Fatty Change===
===Mucoid Degeneration===
===Mucoid Degeneration===