Because
genes similar to smedwi-2 are found in plants, animals and human beings.
I'm feeling the gene should be looked into by cancer researchers...a field I know so little about, no discussion of it should pass my lips. But there you are.
By Silencing Gene in Worm, Researchers Identify Role in Age-Old Mystery of Regeneration
Nov. 24, 2005 – Researchers at the University of Utah have discovered that when a gene called smedwi-2 is silenced in the adult stem cells of planarians, the quarter-inch long worm is unable to carry out a biological process that has mystified scientists for centuries: regeneration.
... Planarians long have fascinated biologists with their ability to regenerate. A worm sliced in two forms two new worm s; even a fractional part of a planarian will grow into a new worm. Scientists know that planarian stem cells, called neoblasts, are central to regeneration, but their exact role is only now being learned.
When an animal stem cell divides, two daughter cells are formed: one that is another stem cell and a second one that can differentiate into the cells that form bone, tissue, and other parts of an organism. These second types of cells are essential for regeneration or maintaining the form and function of tissues by replacing cells that die, a process called homeostasis. By eliminating smedwi-2, the researchers uncovered a role of this protein in regulating the normal differentiation and function of daughter cells.
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plants and animals and human
plants and animals and human beings eh? how about bacteria?
after I have several millions socked away, I'm going to pack in technocapitalism and go get a degree in traditional chinese medicine TCM..., I always wonder how the highest echelons of TCM praxis are working with the riches that genomics yield.., particularly at moments where convergence appears possible...,
 This is a rather
This is a rather interesting finding for the anti-aging crew. But the origin for most cancers resides in the process called apoptosis. That is, ordinarily, cells are programed to die at a specific time.
However, when a cellular insult occurs, this could potentially alter the process. That is, sometime the insult can be only injurious, not deadly. This then, sometimes, results in a mutation in the cell's DNA.
Most mutations, for cancerous processes, are a result of chronic irritation, as an example, smoking.
when the mutation doews occur you can get uncontolled or untimely (ususally too late) cell deaths at varying times = (tumor). That is because those cells so mutated did not die at their alloted time.
Again, all cells' deaths are predetermined by mother-nature, or as some rightwing nuts suggest an " intellingent Designer".
Now how does this process effect the aging process?
Well, as most cells are programed to die at certain time intervals or from various insults. Orinarily the body has repair enzmes and chemicals that can scavenge these dangerous aging chemicals so as to mitigate their damage to the body and perhaps save the cell. Also some cells in the body have progenitor cells that can regenerate a structure when required. This is where this new finding comes into play. If the organ is so damage it can, most of the time, it can regenerate itself.
So finding the gene that regulates regeneration could be good for injuries perhaps. Its role in cancer has to be clarified further.
HMMM!
GDAWG
I thought tumors were more
I thought tumors were more uncontrolled growth than delayed death. Thinking that, I felt the mutation or incorrect activation of the gene might be involved in the accelerated growth.
You are partly corrcect in
You are partly corrcect in some cancers, I suspect. But the predominant thought now is that these cells forget to die to at their alloted time. And "uncontolled growth" in my mind is really a misnomer because if these cells out pace their food supply they become quiesent or go to sleep, or into a resting state thereby making them inpervious or resistant to anti cancer treatments because cancer treatments commonly used now need a dividing cell to be effective.
GDAWG