Main content
Health and medicine
Cystic fibrosis pathophysiology
Created by Amy Fan.
Want to join the conversation?
- Why is she talking so much about the sweat? She said in the first video that this part of the pathophysiology is not treated because it's actually... not a problem. The pathophysiology of CF is more about the accumulation of thick mucus in the lungs (problems with breathing, the blood does not have enough oxygen), the digestive tract (malabsoption of nutriments, it's very serious for children because they can't grow!) . This results in frequent infections. In some cases there are also problems with the pancreas. In many cases people with CF develop diabetes around the age of 28...
There is also infertility, mostly for men - obstructive azoospermia, for women - thickened cervical mucus.
Etc, etc...
EDIT: I just saw the next videos and she explains all this... but the organisation is a little weird for me, maybe I don't understand the word "pathophysiology" ?(1 vote)- yes~u r right~~but I think she might wanna emphasize so much on "salty skin" for few reasons~Firstly, this is the most easiest way to diagnose CF baby in their early age; however, most of clinical feature on CF are pneumonia and pancreatisis without doubt but salty skin is more specific. Lots of ppl can get pneumonia but pneumonia plus salty skin. It implys u "CF". Secondary, to emphasize that skin is the only place that CFTR is doing for "reabsorption" not excretion. pathophysiology is mean to be explain the dz mechanism, isn't it? so no matter which part she said, all can illustrate the CF mechanism clearly.(4 votes)
- Am I correct in viewing this as an oversimplification of the process of NaCl movement. This examples depicts the sweat when the process diagrammed takes place within the individual cells of the gland, correct?(2 votes)
- Yes. Too much irrelevant detail otherwise. I work in design, as an example, I design a building, and I want to emphasize a detail. Most of the drawing is 1/8" to a foot. The detail might be done in 1/4", 1/2" even 1" to a foot. I do not make the entire drawing 1" to a foot. Because I am emphasizing this one little part to make it clear what I want, I will only show a little drawing with just that part and surrounding area. To do the whole building that way would be just too much information, and the person looking at it would just see a really LARGE drawing of a building, not the part of it that I want to emphasize. My detail drawing is an oversimplification of the whole for emphasis of the specific.(1 vote)
- Why do patients with Cf get hypokalemia?(1 vote)
- because the kidneys exchange potassium ions for sodium ions which the patients lose huge amounts of them in sweat ducts.(1 vote)
- Shouldn't that be a CFTR instead of CFTCR?(1 vote)
- They both mean the same thing. If you look up either acronym, you get the same results. CFTR is just a shorter acronym.(1 vote)
- How does the Na content of sweat increase in CF? I get how the Cl content would, but wouldn't Na reabsorption just continue as normal?(1 vote)
- Na+ wants to be with Cl- because opposite ions attract each other. When the Cl- can't leave the gland, the Na+ wants to stay with it and so it doesn't leave the gland.(2 votes)
- Why do the sodium and chloride have a relationship? (- 0:52). Is it because of dipole-dipole interactions? 0:55(1 vote)
- Sodium ions are + charged and chloride ions - charged. They attract.(1 vote)
- Is there a disease where the sodium ducts don't work, but the chlorine ducts do?(1 vote)
- how does the Cl and the Na get in the sweat gland in the first place?(1 vote)
- It is secreted by channels in the secretory portion of the gland. In sweat glands you have a secretory portion and an absorptive portion. In the secretory portion, these ions need to be secreted because they create an osmotic gradient for water to follow. However, we don't want to just waste these ions if possible, so the absorptive portion of the gland reabsorbs them through ion channels. Because the absorptive portion of the gland is impermeable to water, the water is left behind to be secreted onto the skin.(0 votes)
- Atwhy are the Cl channels closed. 4:32(0 votes)
- Because there is a mutation in the gene that encodes these channels which leads to their close.(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Voiceover] So the gene
that's not working well in cystic fibrosis is
called the "CFTCR" gene. So, my gosh, it's a long
acronym and it stands for, let's write this quickly,
Cystic Fibrosis, so they obviously named this after
they named the disease. Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane, which means it goes from one side of
the membrane to the other. Conductance is letting things through, across a membrane, from
one side to the other. And then Regulator. So it controls the movement of something, going cross a membrane. The two ions that are affected
are chloride and sodium. But keep in mind that CFTCR
is a chloride channel. So chloride is physically being blocked by this channel not working. And sodium is affected
because it has a relationship with chloride, but sodium
has its own channel, which is not affected in cystic fibrosis. This CFTCR gene is all over
the body, and depending on where it is, the
situation's a little different. But the common rule's the same, and to illustrate this, let's talk about the sweat gland. This is a place where
this gene has a big role. And from this example,
it's kinda the same thing, going across the body for
cystic fibrosis symptoms. So if this is our sweat
gland, it starts here. So what is secreted into
here that's a channel, and then here is the surface to our skin. I'm gonna label this side "Skin". So when sweat is first
secreted by this gland, it's a lot of sodium and chloride in it. For sodium, let's use blue. Notice that it has a plus charge. Sodium all over here. At the same time, there's
also a lot of chloride in it. Chloride has a negative sign. As you can see in nature, positive and negative attract, right? So, sodium and chloride like
to balance each other out. And they're friends. In other words, the body likes the amount of sodium chloride to be about balanced. So going along this sweat gland, going towards the skin,
there's gonna be channels to reabsorb this chloride
and sodium into the body. We don't want to secrete it all out. So for sodium, we have its own channels, and we use blue here. And then just dot it along the way. Of course, next to them
there's the chloride channels. Now these channels are the ones that are affected by our CFTCR thing. I wanna label this, so CFTCR. In cystic fibrosis, these
channels are not working. But let's look at this as a normal one. So, let's see, this is normal sweat gland. And normally, as the
chloride flows down here, everything goes this way as it
floats down here, it'll leave through these channels
and go back into the body. So this face here, is the body. That's the skin, that's the outside. So these, as they go along,
they go back into the body. And sodium does the same thing. Remember that we want to keep our amount of sodium and chloride pretty balanced. So as the chloride leaves, so does the sodium, through their channels. And they kinda keep an eye on each other to make sure that their
numbers are about balanced. So when we get to the end
here, let's say that there's, let's just say there're
two sodium molecules left, and their buddies, two chloride ions. Now sodium chloride, this is table salt. So this is why our sweat tastes
slightly salty on our skin. And this is normal, because not all of the sodium and chloride will be reabsorbed. Just as an aside, have you noticed that when you sweat a lot, it
gets to be a little saltier, or the sweat has a stronger smell? That's because this is going
through this channel faster, when you're sweating a
lot, and there's less time for these reabsorptions,
so there's more salt left. But that's still normal. Here, let's look at a channel with in a person with cystic fibrosis. So same channel, structurally everything's gonna be the same. And here I'm gonna label this one "CF". Now initially the sweat, the content of it being secreted into here is the same. So I'm gonna use the little dots instead of writing it out this time. You already know blue is
sodium, and orange is chloride. So same channels for the sodium, and they're working just the same. So no problem with sodium channels. However, this time the
CFTCR gene is not working, so the chloride channels
are all messed up. So they look like this, it's not open. So as the chloride floats
down this way, it can't leave. Do you see, it just has to stay in here, and it keeps going towards the skin. And sodium, at this point, it sees that the chloride
is still in here. The negative and positive
want to stay together, so even though the sodium channel is open, the sodium doesn't go either, because its buddy
chloride is still in here. And the body won't just take the positive sodium ions, and leave
the negative in here. It has to be balanced. So, same thing, the sodium gets trapped in here, too,
pulled by the chloride. So in this person, when
we get to the skin, it's almost the same content
of sodium chloride as before. As you can see this is a lot
more than just two of each. Now, I chose two as just
an arbitrary number, but just to show you that
this one is gonna have a lot more, and this is a
lot saltier on the skin. So one of the symptoms of
having CF is having salty skin, or even a baby we do a
chloride test to see how much chloride is on the skin,
and that can point to CF. But the pathophysiology of this channel is similar throughout the body. I just chose one organ here to show you. Now really quickly, in the lungs, the problem is secreting chloride across the epithelium
to moisten the lungs. And since the chloride can't get secreted, the sodium also doesn't get secreted. And water follows sodium. So that's why the
secretions are really thick, because they're lacking in water. And that's how you get
the thick secretions in the lungs and in the pancreas. But here in the skin you get salty sweat.