Washington: In what could shed new light on how the body repairs itself when organs become diseased and offer hope for tissue regeneration, scientists have discovered
how cells communicate with each other during cellular injury.
For their research, a team at Rhode Island Hospital
focused its work on microvesicles which are particles several
times smaller than a normal cell and contain genetic data such
as messenger ribonucleic acid (RNA), other species of RNA and
protein, the `Experimental Hematology` journal reported.
Lead author Jason Aliotta said: "What we attempted
to understand is how cells within the bone marrow are able to
repair organs that are unrelated to those bone marrow cells,
such as the lung.
"Our work suggests that when the lung is injured or
diseased and cells within the lung are stressed or dying, they
shed microvesicles.
"Those microvesicles are then consumed by cells within
the bone marrow, including stem cells, which are present in
small numbers within the circulatory system. Those bone marrow
cells then turn into lung cells."
PTI
