Lysosomes are organelles within animal cells that break down materials and play important roles in cell maintenance, including attacking foreign bacteria. They produce digestive enzymes and are enclosed in a membrane to maintain acidity. Lysosomes recycle materials and defend cells, but malfunction can cause health problems. Tay-Sachs disease is an example of a lysosome-related disorder.
A lysosome is a structure within an animal cell that breaks down materials into compounds that can be used or discarded by the cell, as needed. Lysosomes also play other important roles in cell maintenance, ranging from consuming worn-out structures within the cell to attacking foreign bacteria before they have a chance to enter the cells. With a powerful microscope it is possible to see the lysosomes inside the cell; these structures are typically spherical in shape.
These structures are considered a form of organelle, meaning they are a highly specialized structure within a cell. Organelles are responsible for a cell’s function, ensuring it does what it’s supposed to, replicates when it’s supposed to, and dies when it’s no longer useful. These tiny organisms are quite complex, turning each cell into a microcosm of the human body. When the organelles malfunction, the results can be very problematic for the host organism.
Each cell contains a multitude of lysosomes, and each lysosome produces an assortment of digestive enzymes which it uses to break down food and waste material. Since a lysosome needs an acidic environment to function properly, these organelles are enclosed in a membrane to ensure they remain acidic; to digest things, a lysosome engulfs them, treats them with an appropriate enzyme, and then spits out the results of digestion for the cell to use.
Lysosomes eat the food supplied to cells by the body, allow for the recycling of worn out organelles, defend cells against bacterial invaders, and patch the cell membrane, should it be breached. In essence, lysosomes could be viewed as the recycling centers of cells, ensuring that everything that passes through a cell is used to maximum efficiency by discarding anything that can’t really be used.
Christian de Duve is credited with discovering these organelles; he published a paper in 1949 that identified lysosomes and their function. A variety of health conditions can be caused by improper function of lysosomes. For example, the inability to generate certain digestive enzymes can cause health problems, as the body lacks the ability to break down some things. Tay-Sachs disease is a well-known example of a lysosome-related disorder.
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