Brain Tumors

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Из курса от партнера The University of Chicago

Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life

774 оценки

The University of Chicago

Understanding the Brain: The Neurobiology of Everyday Life

774 оценки

Learn how the nervous system produces behavior, how we use our brain every day, and how neuroscience can explain the common problems afflicting people today. We will study functional human neuroanatomy and neuronal communication, and then use this information to understand how we perceive the outside world, move our bodies voluntarily, stay alive, and play well with others.

Из урока

The Nervous System

Neurobiology is a rapidly growing area of scientific research, and is becoming increasingly prevalent in the news and popular culture. In this course, we will study of the nervous system from a biological perspective by exploring the fundamental concepts in neurobiology, including how we sense the world, how we act in the world, and common neurological disorders.

Peripheral Diseases6:09

Brain Tumors5:46

Познакомьтесь с преподавателями

Peggy Mason
Professor
Neurobiology

[MUSIC]

So we are going to talk about brain tumors.

But before we talk about brain tumors, let's talk about the basics of cancer.

In cancer there is a primary tumor.

So let's say that you have a, a tumor in your colon.

That means that a colon cell is dividing, and dividing,

and dividing, and instead of stopping, it keeps on dividing.

It becomes immortal.

It's just going to divide without any limits.

And because it keeps on dividing, it keeps on growing, it gets bigger and bigger.

And if that's all that were going to happen, that would

be okay, because we'd go in, and we'd take it out.

But that's not all that happens.

What happens in cancer is that, that one of those cells decides to

go rogue, or few of those cells decide to go rogue and they travel some place else.

And then they start a new tumor elsewhere.

So they metastasize.

They spread.

So, the cell that or tumor starts in the colon, and then

a few cells float off to some other place, and now all of

a sudden, you've got tumors that are in your bones, or tumors

that are in your lungs, and maybe even a tumor in your brain.

Same thing with breast cancer or lung cancer,

it starts in one place, it starts in

the breast or it starts in the lung, but from there it can spread to other organs.

So, one source of brain tumors is metastasis spreads from

other or, from other tumors, so for instance lung tumors.

The metastasis are a problem and actually the brain tumors are a problem because

they exist within the cranium, and the cranium is a fixed, bony container.

It can't expand.

And as a tumor expands, the, the cranium is not going to expand.

It's going to increase the pressure and we're going to have a problem.

Okay, so besides having tumors that spread from other

organs, what are the other sources of brain tumors?

Well, one of the very consistent things about neurons is that they don't divide.

They are what's called, they are, they are at the end of their line.

They have no descendants.

Once a neuron is born, it lives and it dies and when it dies, that's the end.

It doesn't, it cannot replace itself, and, and that's the end.

So neurons don't make tumors because they don't divide

at all, and they don't get into this uncontrolled division.

So what makes tumors?

Well, it's other cell types within the brain.

And the primary one that does this are glial cells.

So glial cells don't have the limits on division that neurons do.

So, glial cells can divide and make these tumors.

And and so, glials, gliomas, tumors of glial

cells, are the most common type of brain tumor.

Another type of brain tumor are,

is the type that comes from a division

of meningeal cells, and these are called meningiomas.

Remember that we have the pia, the arachnoid, and the dura.

These are meningeal cells that cover the brain and if they start to divide

once again they're going to make a space-occupying

tumor that's going to increase pressure within the skull.

And finally, the other major type of brain tumor

is are tumors that come from glandular cells.

Now, you might think, well, the glandular cells, I've

got glands here, and I've got glands under my armpit.

I've got glands at various places.

But do I really have glands in my head?

Well, it turns out you have two glands in your head.

One is right here, and that one is called the pineal gland.

You may have heard it, heard of it, because it makes melatonin.

Melatonin might help you sleep.

And the pineal gland is, is important for

the daily rhythm of, of waking and sleeping.

And this, these glandular cells are not neurons.

They're, they're gland cells, and they can

become, they can divide without, without control.

The other, gland that we have in our head is, is one that sits right here.

It's not actually on this picture, but it's called the pituitary,

and these pituitary cells can also divide and that's called pituitary adenomas.

These pituitary adenomas are fairly common.

They account for about 10 to 25% of inter-cranial tumors.

Okay, so bottom line is, brain tumors are a problem because they take up space.

Brain tumors are not tumors of neurons, they're

tumors of glial cells, meningeal cells, or glandular

cells, or they are metastasis spread from other

organs such as the colon or the lung.

Okay.

That's it for this week.

I, I bet you've learned a lot!

In the next segment, I'm going to introduce the topics

that we're going to cover in the rest of this course.

[MUSIC]

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