Question

If lysosomes are absent in a cell what will happen?

Answer 1

Lysosomes aka ‘suicide bags of the cell’ are membrane bound organelles containing hydrolytic enzymes.

In their absence the following might result:

1. Cancer. Cells need to die once they have divided a certain amount of times as they gather genetic damage. Cells which continue to live past their lifespan will accumulate enough mutations to become cancerous.
   
2. Impaired immunity. Cell mediated immunity will take a hit as lysosomes are responsible for the digestion of ingested pathogen (lysosome fuses with phagosome) by phagocytes like macrophages and the subsequent presentation of processed peptides to activate humoral immunity.
3. Metabolic diseases. Synthesis of certain bio-molecules will be affected as catabolic enzymes required for breaking of complex bio-molecules into simpler ones are absent without the presence of lysosome.