Cells are swapping their mitochondria. What does this mean for our =?UT
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All on Thu Apr 10 12:06:15 2025
From Nature:
"An explosion of research is challenging mitochondria’s long-standing
image as exclusively cellular organelles. “They may be a multicellular organelle,” says Jonathan Brestoff, an immunologist who studies
metabolism at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. In other
words, the supposedly static energy factories now seem to be expert
travellers, skipping from one cell to another on demand.
This ‘mitochondrial transfer’ has been observed in a wide variety of
cells and in organisms as diverse as yeast, molluscs and rodents. “It’s really exciting to see,” says Jeffrey Spees, a stem-cell biologist at
the University of Vermont in Burlington.
It’s not yet clear why mitochondria are so mobile. Some studies have
hinted that cells donate their mitochondria to their neighbours during
times of need. In cellular emergencies, newly arrived mitochondria might kick-start tissue repair, fire up the immune system or rescue distressed
cells from death. Other research suggests that mitochondrial transfer
can be a lethal weapon that cancer cells deploy to gain an advantage.
But what this means for human health is still a mystery."
(Cells, like countries, also move their factories from one place to
another. Long term view from short lived cells.)
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