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Cellular Adaptations and Cell Death in Pathology
Cellular adaptations are the ways cells change in number, size, or type when conditions change, and they are the first thing to learn in pathology. The main terms are hyperplasia and hypoplasia (more or fewer cells), hypertrophy and atrophy (bigger or smaller cells), and metaplasia (one normal cell type replaced by another). Doctors use these words to describe tissue changes, and they separate normal adaptation from abnormal growth (dysplasia and anaplasia).