If someone is having a long term viral infection, or chronic inflammations of tissue... what kind of organelles and cell chemicals - released by the cells in the nano-vesicles into the blood stream, would be most likely involved in the healing process. Let's have an example: let say I have a common cough-of-cold and if I don't have fever, I won't take aspirin. In a certain place where the problem started, some cells are transmitting signals to inform the brain about the situation. The natural defense system is being activated and some tissues are having inflammation and the nose got either too wet or too blocked and I can't breed properly. The infection could be favored by some bacteria or viruses in excesses which for some reasons they began to multiply much more rapidly then its normal balanced state (we already have in our body trillions and trillions of microorganisms, but if the whole system is balanced they won't hurt us - but on the contrary, they have each special functions). But once they begin to multiply out of any control, then we have a problem. A generating factor could be the stress. Now we know that white cells can consume some microorganisms, like bacteria... we also know that some other smaller microorganisms like viruses can enter the cells and do some damages. How can a damaged cell repair itself, once a foreign complex and highly organized molecule system - like a virus, is inside the cell ? What can it use to neutralize its action and expel out the residues ? And if the cell is too weak to neutralize the virus, how about the healthy cells ? Can a healthy cell help a weaken cell to fight the disease ? And with what ? ... Let's hypothetically presume that some healthy cells, either from the brain or from nearby tissues are creating molecules which can bend with the virus and neutralize it. The newly formed compound is a non-active waste product which can be easily eliminated. But the question remains: how does a healthy cell help a weakened cell to repair itself ?
A cell can not, like a plasmid in bacteria, donate mitochondria. Nor can a cell act as a organ donor in the biological sense. We can, as scientists, move mitochondria etc... from cell to cell. However that is a very difficult procedure to do. hypothetically, i would argue the nucleus would be the most important. That is the program coding of the cell. it is there that resistance genes are expressed and transcription occurs. it would be the most important command center site to control what is happening elsewhere in the cell (including the generation of new mitochondria) etc....
Let's take another hypothetical example. One cell is weakened because its mitochondria is damaged. Where can it find a new replacement organelle and make it work again ?... Is another cell capable of "donating" its own mitochondria - let say this cell is having ten times more mitochondria and let's hypothetically assume... just theoretically ... that it can sacrifice itself and die but can offer its parts, its organelles to be used as replacement parts for 10 times more damaged cells and so they can be repaired... can anyone explain if there is any chance for such mechanism to exist inside our body ? or this is just a wishful thinking and I'd need another totally different approach for studying the problem ?
A cell can not, like a plasmid in bacteria, donate mitochondria. Nor can a cell act as a organ donor in the biological sense. We can, as scientists, move mitochondria etc... from cell to cell. However that is a very difficult procedure to do. hypothetically, i would argue the nucleus would be the most important. That is the program coding of the cell. it is there that resistance genes are expressed and transcription occurs. it would be the most important command center site to control what is happening elsewhere in the cell (including the generation of new mitochondria) etc....
One place to start though, is to review immune biology and how the body naturally fights off an infection.
paracrine and endocrine signalling plays vital role in improving the immune activity of the weakened cell. the signals transferred from healthy cell to infected cell allows triggereing of cascade of reactions resulting in a back fight with the pathogen. or else, these signals induce apaptosis in weakened celss, thereby killing them as well as the virus/bacteria with which it was infected. this also plays a major role in cell protection. Some cells also have the caliber to induce inflammation and cause cell apoptosis once infected with virus, thereby reducing its chance of infecting other cells. this is how our common cold is treated self by the body cells.
Thank you Joyeeta ! Wonderful answer and very helpful for my research. So, if I understood correctly, the healthy cells are sending signals (which in fact are small molecules) to the infected cells and either they manage to neutralize the problem either they go into apoptosis as a last choice. So, these signals should first arrive to the infected cell receptors which detect them, then are doing a conformation movement and then a cascade a reactions are triggered inside the infected cell. So it is not necessarily for the infected cell to withdraw replacement pieces from outside, but it can create them inside.... is that correct ? and is that correct in all possible situations ?
Hi All
Just to add into the mix - although the vast majority of cells cannot exchange organelles, something you might want to bear in mind is that it has been suggested that stem cells might be able to donate mitochondria (see below).. However, this is very early days for this and no-one would say it was easy :)
http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v18/n5/full/nm.2769.html?WT.ec_id=NM-201205
An article from Nature Magazine !! That is great ! Thank you very much Claire. Indeed what I am looking for is very very novel and the research had just scratched the surface on this topic but it is fascinating !. Thank you again !
Hi Muresanu.
Yes, a cell doesnt require to import organelles from other cells. Stem cells have the caliber to improve, donate or differentiate into the required cell type, but not all cells follow the same principle. If the unhealthy cell deteriorates to a level that it cannot regenerate, it prefers to undergo apoptosis. Every act is programmed by the cell itself.
It was a pleasure interacting with you.
Thank you very much Joyeeta. So, if we assume, for example, that some vertebral disc's cells are damaged, and we call it degenerative illness, and if also assume that those damaged cells would need a certain molecules-parts in order to regain its healthy, and if we also assume that those molecules-parts could be donated from some stem cells, then all we need is to make this mechanism happening. I am saying all these because, in a way, yet unknown to me, I did managed to create the conditions in order to favor this mechanism and after that the entire process healed my lumbar severe discopathy and other 2 chronic diseases. So, in order to regain the mobility of the body and not having the nerves pressed and make physical normal efforts just like a healthy individual, SOMETHING DID happened..... but due to these very special research I am much closer to the truth then ever before. Already knowing that these mechanisms do exist, all we need now, in my case and for those who can produce this, is to mark with a C13 isotope those stem (or whatever) cells and simply watch what are they doing. Do you see this dilemma ? You get sick totally effortlessly, but getting healthy again is a real problem and need a lot of personal and scientific effort. I do not have a precise answer to what I did in my case (this is why I am still seeking answers) but I can help others do the same and they wrote me back and have results. But on this moment we are currently working to develop a scientific protocol for measuring and tracking parts and molecules...
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Molecular Cell Biology