What do you think this colorful picture shows? If you guessed that it’s a picture of a cell undergoing cell division, you are right. In fact, the picture is an image of a lung cell stained with fluorescent dyes undergoing mitosis, specifically during early anaphase. You will read about mitosis, a type of cell division, in this chapter.
Cell division is just one of the stages that all cells go through during their life. This includes cells that are harmful, such as cancer cells. Cancer cells divide more often than normal cells, and grow out of control. In fact, this is how cancer cells cause illness. In this chapter, you will read about how cells divide, what other stages cells go through, and what causes cancer cells to divide out of control and harm the body.
5.1 Cell Division and the Cell Cycle
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