Researchers from Florida Atlantic University found that cells in the eye lens in close proximity to each other will eat cells that are dying due to environmental stressors before they reach a level of toxicity. These stressors can range from UV light and smoke to various other pollutants.
Scientists have long known that environmental stressors can kill cells, but the eye lens is unique due to the fact that it does not have a blood supply, meaning stressors such as UV light are continuously killing cells.
"Accumulation of apoptopic material is toxic to epithelial cell populations, which include the cornea, skin, lungs and other tissue, and is associated with the development of multiple autoimmune, inflammatory, aging and degenerative diseases," said Marc Kantorow, author of the paper, in a press release. "Identifying the cell systems that protect against the effects of apoptosis-inducing insults is an important step toward understanding and developing therapies to treat these diseases."
Through the examination of embryonic chicken lenses, Kantorow and his colleagues were able to examine the process whereby cells digest other cells close to toxicity and identified the specific molecules need in cells to conduct this process.
"It is widely known that cells have very specific functions and that environmental damage is associated with cell death," said Lisa Brennan, who participated in the research. "Before this study, the common knowledge was that what removed these dead cells were specialized immune cells that literally go into the tissue and eat these dead cells and that's how your body got rid of them. We looked at the eye lens as a model to try to search for alternate ways to get rid of these dead cells to keep a tissue alive."
The findings were published in the Dec. 15 issue of the Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
