Decomposition

Decomposition (from Latin decompositio - disconnection, dissolution), a term that in relation to cells denotes (Aschoff) a disruption of the normal relationships between the chemical elements that make up their nucleus and protoplasm. At present, the chemical decomposition of the cell has been studied only to the extent that fatty substances (German Fettphanerose) are lost from the complex chemical composition of the cell. - Under fatty decomposition (fettige Decomposition, Aschoff) is meant such damage to the components of protoplasm and nucleus that contain lipoids, when in the process of splitting and decomposition of molecules, fat-like chemical bodies are revealed. Fatty decomposition occurs only in dying or dead tissues and consists in the release of complex lipoids, phosphatides from nuclear substances. Since these compounds have a tendency to form myelin figures, fatty decomposition can be designated as postmortem or necrobiotic myelinosis. Some generally consider decomposition as a manifestation of autolysis (see) of the cell. Artificially, pictures similar to decomposition, mainly fatty, can be produced by methods of autolysis, in particular by means of proteolytic enzymes; in this case, the observation should relate to the very initial phases of autolytic changes in tissue. Fatty decomposition is contrasted with other forms of pathological cell obesity that have different biological significance and origin, namely: fatty infiltration, which concerns the deposition of ready-made fats or their individual components in cells, and fatty transformation, in which there is a formation of fats from proteins and carbohydrates (see Fatty degeneration).