Harvard scienntists find our cells dedifferentiate naturally in response to stress

[montrelblundell]

Three papers from Harvard and the Hubrecht Insitute find ordinary mammal cells can "go stem cell" after injury/stress to replace lost cells. This salamander-like ability has "deep evolutionary origins" and could have major ramifications for both regenerative medicine, and the basic science of human biology. The papers raise a lot of questions. Does calorie restriction result in longer life in part because the stress of starvation causes cells to dedifferentiate to a more potent, long-lived, stem cell state? Stress causes cancer--is this partly a result of cells dedifferentiating in response to unrelated stresses, and proliferating out of control in that stem-cell like state? Etc. Article in Bioscience Technology called "Stress may naturally make stem cells of mature cells" provides links to the journal papers in Nature et al.

 

[elte]

Three papers from Harvard and the Hubrecht Insitute find ordinary mammal cells can "go stem cell" after injury/stress to replace lost cells. This salamander-like ability has "deep evolutionary origins" and could have major ramifications for both regenerative medicine, and the basic science of human biology. The papers raise a lot of questions. Does calorie restriction result in longer life in part because the stress of starvation causes cells to dedifferentiate to a more potent, long-lived, stem cell state? Stress causes cancer--is this partly a result of cells dedifferentiating in response to unrelated stresses, and proliferating out of control in that stem-cell like state? Etc. Article in Bioscience Technology called "Stress may naturally make stem cells of mature cells" provides links to the journal papers in Nature et al.

That seems similar to the recent research involving acid to coax cells to revert back to stem cells. The acid was a way to environmentally stress cells.

I think those thoughts about low calories and cancer have merit.

Please keep us posted on these developments.

 

[wellwisher]

The environmental stress comes from the outside of the cell and not the inside. This implies that the cell body controls the DNA. The addition of acid, for example, has to first tweak the cell body, via the membrane. This stress is transmitted to the DNA to trigger the change in the DNA. The cell body can function without the DNA, such as within red blood cells, but the DNA is inert without the support of the cell body. The cell body changes the support to DNA, altering its function.

A cell tends to accumulate potassium K+ cations. These are chaotropic in that they create disorder in the water of the cell. The H+ of the acid is the opposite and has a kosmotropic effect similar to sodium Na+ ions. These create order in the water. This global change in the cell water will add order to the DNA. The DNA backtracks to a state of order, implicit of the more fundamental genes common to stem cells.

 

[montrelblundell]

Yes, the article points out that these scientists far more carefully tracked this endogenous dedifferentiation via lineage tracing. The "acid bath" papers, meanwhile, appear about to be retracted, rife with fraud. Stress really is a kind of reprogrammer in mammals; acid simply isn't. I will post a recent article on "acid bath."

 

[montrelblundell]

The papers mentioned in that article find that some epithelial cells can dedifferentiate into a stem cell state when injured themselves, but others can dedifferentiate in response to the ablation of a local stem cell compartment. So it would appear numerous pathways are involved?

 

[elte]

The papers mentioned in that article find that some epithelial cells can dedifferentiate into a stem cell state when injured themselves, but others can dedifferentiate in response to the ablation of a local stem cell compartment. So it would appear numerous pathways are involved?

That dedifferentiation might play a part in a therapeutic method that I use on sores on my extremities. If I get a nick, cut, or scrape, I use my hand, either its heal or as a fist to pound repetitively on a part of the body not far from the injury, in numerous sessions over time. Doing that has not only cured infections, but has also reduced the healing time by at least a factor of two. There must be more to it than simply boosting blood and lymphatic circulation. Some pathway could be getting triggered, so quite possibly there could be dedifferentiation of some cell populations.

 

[wellwisher]

If you look at the DNA, as a huge integrated molecular composite configuration, there is a logic for stem cell differentiation. The DNA does not exist as free DNA, but rather the DNA is either hydrated by water and/or it is packed with protein to various degrees. Theoretically, the simplest way to tune-in any differentiation of the DNA is by changing the global potential around the DNA, so an integrated equilibrium configuration differentiates.

If we compare totally unpacked DNA, to fully packed DNA; packed chromosomes, these are the two extremes configurations. The first defines the highest entropy, while the second defines the lowest entropy. The packing creates order and minimizes freedom and entropy. All genetic differentiations are in the middle and define intermediate integrated entropy, based on packing/unpacking ratios.

Embryonic stem cells would be expected to be closer to the lower end of the entropy spectrum. This higher level of DNA order, in light of the second law; entropy has to increase, creates a natural push to unfold and define other configurations.

When the DNA packs, the DNA winds around packing protein. While reversal of packing requires enzymes. The first direction is spontaneous, while the second direction requires extra machinery, because it is an uphill battle. Moving to higher DNA entropy has to be done deliberately. The other way, occurs spontaneously because packing lowers the DNA energy. This is done by design.

This works on the same principle seen in water and oil. If we combine water and oil, they will spontaneously separate into two layers. This lowers the system entropy.This is possible because it also lowers system energy/enthalpy cause by surface tension. To go the other way, or increase system entropy, we need to add energy. In the case of water and oil, this is done with agitation. While with the DNA, enzymes play the role of agitators to make gene bubbles. Like water and oil, if we stop the enzymes or agitation, the DNA will spontaneously repack (merge into fewer layers).

Acids are kosmotropic or add order to the water. This helps to add order to the DNA, back to fewer layers; stem cells.