(dr) ForwardPathway
A new study reveals a so far unknown cellular purge process that can help injured cells return to a state similar to that of stem cells.
When they suffer injuries, the cells activate well -regulated answers to promote healing.
Among these is a self -destruction processlong studied, which eliminates dead and damaged cells, as well as a more recently identified phenomenon, which helps aged cells to reverse to a younger state, allowing regenerate healthy fabric.
Now, a new mouse study, led by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and the Baylor College of Medicine, reveals a process of cellular purge So far unknown, which can help injured cells return to a state similar to that of stem cells.
Scientists designated this new answer as “catarcitose“From the roots of the Greek words meaning“ cellular cleaning ”.
The results of the were presented in an article published last week in the magazine Cell Reports.
The study used a Gastric injury model in mice to offer new perspectives on how cells heal – or fail to heal – In the face of damage, such as those caused by inflammatory infections or diseases.
“The work of the cell, after an injury, is to repair this damage. But mature cellular machinery, which allows it to perform its normal function, hinders this process, ”explains Jeffrey W. Brown, researcher at Washu Medicine and first author of the study, in a statement published in.
“So this ‘cellular cleaning’ is a quick way to get rid of this machineryallowing the cell to transform quickly into a small, primitive cell capable of proliferating and repairing the lesion. We have identified this process in the gastrointestinal tract, but we suspect that it is also relevant in other tissues. ”
Brown compared the phenomenon to a “vomiting” or expulsion of waste that adds a shortcut, helping the cell to break free from superfluous elements and focus on the regeneration of healthy tissues faster than it would be possible through simple gradual and controlled waste degradation.
Like many shortcuts, This also has potential disadvantages: According to the investigators, Catarthocytosis is rapid but disorganizedwhich can help understand how cellular responses to injury can go wrong, especially in situations of chronic damage.
For example, a continuous catarocytosis in response to an infection is a sign of chronic and recurrent cell injury inflammationa fertile terrain for the development of cancer.
Effectively, the accumulation of expelled cellular waste resulting from all this catarthochitosis can also be a way of identifying Or monitor cancer, the investigators explain.
Scientists have identified chickenrartocytosis in the context of an important regenerative response to lesions, designated paligenosedescribed for the first time in 2018 by the study’s senior author, Jason C. Millsresearcher at Baylor College of Medicine.
Although it has been discovered in the context of Paligenosis, investigators admit that chicken partocytosis may be used by cells to expel waste In other more worrying scenarioshow to provide mature cells with the ability to start behaving as cancer cells.
Although the newly identified Cathartocytosis can help injured cells advance in palgenosis and regenerate healthy fabric faster, this benefit has the counterpart Additional waste production that can feed inflammatory states, hindering the resolution of chronic lesions and increasing the risk of cancer development.
“In gastric cells, palgenosis – the reversal to a stem state to promote healing – is a risky process, especially now we have identified the potential inflammatory component of chicken parthocytosis involved,” Mills explains.
“These stomach cells are long lasting and, as they get older, they accumulate mutations. If many older and mutated cells return to the stem state to repair an injury – and injuries also tend to feed inflammation, as happens during an infection – increases the risk of acquiring, perpetuating and expand harmful mutations that can lead to cancer as these stem cells multiply, ”he adds.
The authors of the study suspect that catarocytosis can play a role in perpetuation of injury and inflammation in gastric infections by Helicobacter pylori. This bacteria is known for infecting and damaging the stomachcausing ulcers and increasing the risk of gastric cancer.
Conclusions may also make their way to new therapeutic strategies for stomach cancer and possibly other gastrointestinal tract cancers.
“If we understand this process better, we can develop ways of stimulate healing response And perhaps, in the context of chronic lesions, blocking that damaged cells in persistent chickenoutocytosis contribute to the formation of cancer, ”concluded Brown.
