In a significant development, Indian scientists have demonstrated that cells in our body have a built-in mechanism to revive from the brink of death.
This understanding can lead to novel ways of accelerating the repair and regeneration of tissue, which can alleviate a lot of problems in humans.
So far, scientists have deciphered many traits of the human cells, like they continuously multiply, some repair themselves, some even commit suicide, and overall they play the most important roles in our lives.
The important breakthrough in identifying this new trait has been achieved by researchers at the Hyderabad-based CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB).
The team of scientists led by Dr Santosh Chauhan showed that cells have built-in ways to revive from the brink of death.
The process of revival is highly programmed and mimics developmental growth. The scientists demonstrated that such a revival, which they called Programmed Cell Revival, has multiple benefits.
The revival helped, for example, in speeding up skin wound healing and repairing corneal burns in mice, stimulating tail regeneration in frog tadpoles, promoting nerve repair in worms, and enhancing blood stem cell production in fruit flies.
The study has been published in the EMBO Journal.
Rethink life & death
“The breakthrough reshapes how we think about life, death, and healing at the cellular level”, says Dr Chauhan.
This finding also overturns the long-held belief that once a cell begins to die, its journey is one-way and irreversible.
“What we see is not accidental survival of cells. Rather, we find that cells across organisms can follow a common mechanism that can reactivate their developmental, metabolic, and immune pathways to restore their full cellular function,” the CCMB scientists said.
The CCMB scientists have filed for Indian and international patents for this finding.
Scientists caution
However, the scientists also cautioned that the same revival programme could pose risks in certain contexts, particularly cancer.
“Many cancer drug screens rely on superficial signs of cell death, but this study warns that such cells may not be truly dead — and could revive with enhanced stem-like properties, potentially making tumours more aggressive.
While Programmed Cell Revival mechanisms may be a blessing for regenerative medicine strategies, they possibly reduce the efficacy of cancer treatments,” warned Dr Chauhan.
This discovery has opened up a new frontier in cell biology that is poised to engage experts of regenerative medicine and cancer biologists to look at their findings in a new light.
Get the latest updates in Hyderabad City News, Technology, Entertainment, Sports, Politics and Top Stories on WhatsApp & Telegram by subscribing to our channels. You can also download our app for Android and iOS.
