Andrea Lius in The Scientist:
When the stomach gets injured, the large, enzyme-secreting cells in its lining, called chief cells, can quickly reprogram themselves to become small, proliferative cells to repair the damaged tissue. Scientists once thought that this dramatic downsizing involved the destruction of the cells’ components through lysosomes, organelles that act as cells’ garbage cans.
But recently, a group of researchers discovered that in mice, gastric chief cells did not swallow unwanted cell debris—they threw it up.1 The team, led by Jeffrey Brown, a gastroenterologist at Washington University and Jason Mills, an anatomical pathologist at Baylor University, named this process cathartocytosis, which means “cellular cleansing” in Greek. Their findings, published in Cell Reports, offer insights into how this novel biological phenomenon can help stomach wounds heal and if dysregulated, may lead to cancer.
More here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.