Cell as a reference point in medicine (185 years of cell theory)

the cellular theory, formulated by T. Schwann in 1839, defines the cell as the elementary unit of living things, and has retained its relevance even now as a basic concept of medicine. Aim is to substantiate the definition of the concept of a cell as a reference point for the use of ideas about its organization and properties as a tool for the study of vital processes/pathology in the human body and in experiments. The progress of biology and medicine over the past century and a half has led to numerous attempts to revise the formulation and content of the cell theory. In fact, attempts were made to expand the interpretation/definition of the semantic parts of the initial content of its definition, namely: what is a cell (structure, composition, and properties); what is an elementary unit (taking into account the existence of proto- and eukaryotes, unicellular and multicellular organisms); what is this living thing? Systemic analysis of the organization of the cell allows, as an option, to consider it as a system for the vital activity of which such subsystems are necessary and sufficient as: the carrier of hereditary information (genome), the system of implementation of hereditary information, the plastic support system, the energy supply system, the regulatory system, the reproduction system. Ideas about these functional life support systems can be extrapolated to a multicellular organism. T. Schwann 's idea that a cell is the elementary unit of a living thing, and R. Virchow’s idea that a pathological process is a manifestation of cell changes are generally accepted today. Accordingly, cellular acts as a reference point for analyzing the development of the pathological process and methods of its correction. From these positions, the disease begins with a change in a some pattern of cells associated with changes in their genetic landscape or life support systems. Cells dysfunction of a certain differentiation leads to a lesion of the tissue specific function and the corresponding organ, and ultimately to a lesion of the organism vital activity as a whole. Accordingly, the systematization of facts and the clear definition of certain ideas about the composition, properties of the cell, the nature of its differentiation and the formation of tissue in the composition of the organs of the body is an effective tool for solving many applied questions of medicine.