Causes
Hyperplasia may be due to any number of causes, including increased demand (for example, proliferation of basal layer of epidermis to compensate skin loss), chronic inflammatory response, hormonal dysfunctions, or compensation for damage or disease elsewhere. Hyperplasia may be harmless and occur on a particular tissue. An example of a normal hyperplastic response would be the growth and multiplication of milk-secreting glandular cells in the breast as a response to pregnancy, thus preparing for future breast feeding.
Hyperplasia may also be induced artificially by injecting hormones such as IGF-1 and human growth hormone. Perhaps the most interesting and potent effect IGF has on the human body is its ability to cause hyperplasia, which is an actual splitting of cells. By contrast, hypertrophy is what occurs, for example, to skeletal muscle cells during weight training and steroid use and is simply an increase in the size of the cells. With IGF use, one is able to cause hyperplasia which actually increases the number of muscle cells present in the tissue. Weight training with or without anabolic steroid use enables these new cells to mature in size and strength. In addition, animal tests have shown that stretching a muscle can trigger hyperplasia, though this phenomenon has yet to be confirmed in humans. Hyperplasia may also be induced through specific power output training for athletic performance, thus increasing the number of muscle fibers instead of increasing the size of a single fiber.
Hyperplasia may also occur abnormally, and is associated with a variety of clinical diseases.
Read more about this topic: Hyperplasia