Source: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Date: March 8, 2007
Summary:
A cannibalistic process called autophagy spurs dying embryonic stem cells to send “eat me” and “come get me” signals to have their corpses purged, a last gasp that paves the way for normal mammalian development, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found. Dr. Beth Levine, professor of internal medicine and microbiology and chief of the division of infectious diseases at UT Southwestern and the study’s senior author, says her team's findings also suggest that defects in autophagy might trigger autoimmune diseases and spur inflammation in human conditions with cell death, such as neurodegenerative diseases or chemotherapy-treatment of cancer. If so, reversing the defects could potentially help treat such diseases.
