PMID: 9160289Apr 1, 1997Paper

A liability theory of disease: the foundation of cell population pathology

Medical Hypotheses
J Zhao

Abstract

Within a homogeneous population of cells, the tendency of individual cells to become diseased is not 'homogeneous'. As a general concept of disease, the 'liability theory' describes such a tendency (cell liability) as a quantitative characteristic following a continuous distribution. This suggests that there are always some cells that are more liable than the rest and that the liability values of cells or liability-associated cell characteristics can be assessed quantitatively. By defining the more or extremely liable cells through a critical value or 'threshold', the liability theory hypothesizes that these cells may play a significant role in determining or affecting the overall disease liability of a cell population; the more such cells are present, the more liable the cell population is, as a whole, to disease. Furthermore, it proposes that the origin and development of disease may be fundamentally relevant to this kind of intrapopulational variation in cell liability. The liability theory attempts to provide a theoretical framework for studying the 'cell population' mechanism of disease, or cell population pathology. Also, it may serve as a working model for analysis and assessment of cell population liabilities for variou...Continue Reading

References

Jan 25, 1991·Cell·J M Bishop
Oct 9, 1987·Science·E R FearonB Vogelstein
Apr 1, 1995·The Journal of Pathology·P W Hamilton, D C Allen
Oct 1, 1995·Medical Hypotheses·J Zhao
Jun 1, 1996·Medical Hypotheses·J Zhao
May 30, 1953·Nature·J D WATSON, F H CRICK
Nov 25, 1949·Science·L PAULING, H A ITANO

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