Cell death is essential to your health − an immunologist explains when cells decide to die with a bang or take their quiet leave

While death may seem passive, an unfortunate ending that just “happens,” the death of your cells is often extremely purposeful and strategic.

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The ConversationThe Conversation
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https://theconversation.com/cell-death-is-essential-to-your-health-an-immunologist-explains-when-cells-decide-to-die-with-a-bang-or-take-their-quiet-leave-212595https://theconversation.com/cell-death-is-essential-to-your-health-an-immunologist-explains-when-cells-decide-to-die-with-a-bang-or-take-their-quiet-leave-212595
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Wednesday, October 4, 2023
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Apoptosis, Tissue, Infection, Endometriosis, DNA, Maintenance, Yersinia enterocolitica, Cell death, DSM-IV codes, Neoplasm, Black, COVID-19, Fever, Finger, Survival, Cancer, The, Black Death, Research, Cell, Lupus, Yersinia pestis, Uterus, Pain, Pandemic, Protein, Patient, Swelling, Immune system, Bacteria, Immunodeficiency, Health, Death, Yersinia, Virus, Red, Skin, Vaccine, Pharmaceutical industry
Summary
Key Points: 
  • While death may seem passive, an unfortunate ending that just “happens,” the death of your cells is often extremely purposeful and strategic.
  • The intricate details of how and why cells die can have significant effects on your overall health.
  • My own research explores how immune cells switch between different types of programmed death in scenarios like cancer or injury.

Quietly exiting: silent cell death

    • Regardless of the timeline, the death of old and damaged cells and their replacement with new cells is a normal and important bodily process.
    • Silent cell death, or apoptosis, is described as silent because these cells die without causing an inflammatory reaction.
    • Apoptosis is an active process involving many proteins and switches within the cell.
    • Sometimes cells can detect that their own functions are failing and turn on executioner proteins that chop up their own DNA, and they quietly die by apoptosis.
    • Whether it’s for development or maintenance, your cells are quietly exiting to keep your body happy and healthy.

Going out with a bang: inflammatory cell death

    • This inflammatory cell death is typically triggered by bacteria, viruses or stress.
    • Rather than quietly shutting down, cells undergoing inflammatory cell death will make themselves burst, or lyse, killing themselves and exploding inflammatory messengers as they go.
    • These infections are rarely fatal because your immune cells can aggressively eliminate the pathogen’s niche by inducing inflammatory cell death.
    • The virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic also causes a lot of inflammatory cell death.
    • Researchers are still studying the role of inflammatory cell death in COVID-19 infection, and understanding this delicate balance can help improve treatments.
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