Relapsing/Remitting, what the?

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Lyon
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Post by Lyon »

First, remarkably interesting article on apoptosis. Thank you NHE! I was aware of the name apoptosis, and vaguely aware of the process from school 30 some years ago, but at that time I imagine all that was known is "cells die". Heck, we only had three elements on the periodic table at that point! Air, water and dirt!

Not to go off topic but what my eyes glued themselves to was the following
In adult tissues, cell death exactly balances cell division. If this were not so, the tissue would grow or shrink. If part of the liver is removed in an adult rat, for example, liver cell proliferation increases to make up the loss. Conversely, if a rat is treated with the drug phenobarbital—which stimulates liver cell division (and thereby liver enlargement)—and then the phenobarbital treatment is stopped, apoptosis in the liver greatly increases until the liver has returned to its original size, usually within a week or so. Thus, the liver is kept at a constant size through the regulation of both the cell death rate and the cell birth rate.
I'm sure this has been previously considered as an answer to brain atrophy but I'm going to have to find out for myself! Of course I'm sure it isn't the answer in itself...keeping dysfunctional cells alive longer serves no good purpose, but maybe something good could be derived?

To make certain I understand your reason for including apoptosis into the mix. Not only do steroids tend to seal the bbb and reduce inflammation but they induce premature cell death with lowers the numbers of availlable immune system cells causing damage (which also creates less inflammation)?

I think I understand and maybe going into it more is belaboring the situation.

Thanks NHE!
Bob
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