Cancers may be wounds that never heal, suggest the first live images of tumors forming.
It looks like that cancer cells may be considered lesions that never cure according to the first live images of tumor forming.
Seems that individual cancer cells are sending identical distress signals as wounds do, deluding immune cells so they will grow into tumors. If that is the case than anti-inflammatory drugs could help to combat or prevent cancer, which means that if you will take a small quantity of something that suppresses inflammation, such as aspirin, it could reduce the risk of cancer. Let us look how tissue behaves once it is wounded: it will trigger accumulation of white blood cells called leukocytes and become inflamed in order to kill infectious agent, clean up necrotic tissue and rebuild damaged tissue
A study in zebra fish shows that this process is also inspired and sustained by tumor cells.
Hurlstone and colleagues of the University of Manchester genetically engineered zebra fish so that skin cells and leukocytes would radiate different colors under ultraviolet light. Some zebra fish were also engineered to have cancerous skin cells.
The team found that the cancerous skin cells secreted hydrogen peroxide, mobilizing leukocytes which helped them on their way to becoming a tumor. When they blocked hydrogen peroxide production in the zebra fish, the leukocytes were no longer attracted to cancerous cells and the cancer colonies reduced in number.
More horrifying, the researchers found that healthy skin cells contiguous to the cancerous ones also produced hydrogen peroxide, suggesting that cancer cells somehow nominate them into triggering inflammation.
Journal reference: PLoS Biology, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1000562
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