Question:easy

Anaplasia is defined as?

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Anaplastic cells are primitive and lose their tissue-specific features.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
  • Changing one type of epithelium to another
  • Nuclear chromatin
  • Lack of differentiation
  • Morphological changes
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The Correct Option is C

Solution and Explanation

Step 1: Break the word down - ana (backward) plus plasis (formation) implies de-differentiation, a backward step away from a mature specialized cell. Step 2: In tumor pathology this means anaplastic cells look primitive and have lost the structural and functional features that mark their parent tissue, signaling a high-grade malignancy. Step 3: Discard the metaplasia option (one epithelium replacing another), since that is a reversible adaptive switch, not loss of differentiation. Step 4: The remaining choices about chromatin and morphology are descriptive findings, not the core definition, so anaplasia equals lack of differentiation. \[\boxed{\text{Lack of differentiation}}\]
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