Accumulation of cyclins?

If someone had an accumulation of cyclins in there cells, how would that affect their recovery after an injury?

DNAunion2013-03-23T14:57:43Z

Favorite Answer

Cyclins are part of the machinery that regultes mitotic cell division.

They are called cyclins because their levels cycle along with cell division: their concentrations rise and fall once for each cycle. It turns out that it because they help regulate the cell cycle, controlling whether a cell will pass from G2 to mitosis, for example.

Cyclins bind with other proteins called Cdk's, for cyclin-dependent kinases. It is the combination of a cyclin and a Cdk that is actually regulates the cell cycle. When the concentration of cyclins is low, there are not enough cyclin-Cdk complexes to trigger progression. When the cyclin cycles up - its concentration increases - there are more cyclin-Cdk complexes and progression through the cell cycle can occur.


So if someone had an accumulation of cyclins in their cells, it would cause those cells to progress through the cell cycle, producing more cells. This would lend itself to replacing dead cells and speeding up healing.



PS: There is more to regulation of the cell cycle than just cyclin concentrations (for example, cycling-Cdk complexes have to be phosphorylated 3 times, and then one phosphate group must be removed), so the true answer may not be so simple.