Researchers have identified a new cellular process that helps injured cells heal by becoming stem-like.
The process, which is similar to vomiting, was discovered in a new study from the Washington University School of Medicine and the Baylor College of Medicine. They’ve named this previously unknown cellular purge cathartocytosis, or “cellular cleansing.”
According to a press release, the research was published in Cell Reports. The study, which was conducted on mice with stomach injuries, investigated how cells heal or fail to heal from infection or inflammatory disease.
Cells have multiple ways to promote healing, but this newly identified state allows cells to shed old components and become new again, which helps them regenerate healthy tissue. According to the study authors, it’s almost as if the cells vomit.
However, because cathartocytosis is “fast and messy,” it might have downsides. It could actually perpetuate injury and inflammation. The researchers hope that a better understanding of this phenomenon will help them find ways to use these healing mechanisms in medicine while avoiding the negative effects of cell “vomit.”
Shedding the old
Cathartocytosis was first described in 2018 by Dr. Jason C. Mills, a senior author of the latest study. The process is part of a larger regenerative injury response called paligenosis, where cells reprogram themselves to revert to an “immature” or young state.
“After an injury, the cell’s job is to repair that injury. But the cell’s mature cellular machinery gets in the way,” said Dr. Jeffrey W. Brown, the first author of the study.
“So, this cellular cleanse is a quick way of getting rid of that machinery so it can rapidly become a small, primitive cell capable of proliferating and repairing the injury. We identified this process in the GI tract, but we suspect it is also relevant in other tissues,” Dr. Brown continued in a press release.
Essentially, the cells “vomit” or purge waste to clear out their cellular machinery. This acts as a shortcut that allows them to grow healthy tissue faster since their normal way of breaking down waste takes too long. However, this action has downsides.
Cathartocytosis could cause cancer
During the ongoing research, Dr. Brown noticed debris outside the cells in a mouse stomach injury model. As the waste continued to build, he realized that something deliberate was happening. The stomach injury produced this purging effect, or cathartocytosis, within the larger regenerative healing response of paligenosis. This is when a cell reverts to a stem cell state to heal.
However, this additional waste could also cause inflammation, slowing the healing of chronic injuries and potentially causing cancer. More research is needed, but the study authors suspect that cathartocytosis could actually damage the stomach. The good news is that these findings could lead to new treatment strategies for stomach and GI cancers.
“If we have a better understanding of this process, we could develop ways to help encourage the healing response and perhaps, in the context of chronic injury, block the damaged cells undergoing chronic cathartocytosis from contributing to cancer formation,” Brown concluded in a press release.
The study has been published in Cell Reports.