Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Heard it before somewhere
New Scientist has a brief article on an INTERESTING development.
Researchers were worried about transplanted organs developing cancer despite seeming 'clean' at the time of transplant. They checked to see what kind of gene activity persists in a dead organism. Killed a bunch of mice by wringing their necks, then extracted genetic material at intervals for 48 hours.
Most of their findings make sense in terms of an orderly shutdown and cleanup procedure, and their original question was answered. Genes that create inflammation and cancer were upregulated (switched on) after death, and stayed on for varying periods, doing what genes do, synthesizing proteins.
The surprising part: A whole bunch of genes that normally act during EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT also switched on and started work, and these genes seemed to be peaking at 48 hours.
The researchers didn't try to guess what these genes are doing.
Reasonable guess: Maybe they're a vestigial remnant of an earlier system in which organisms regenerate after two or three days?
Sounds familiar somehow.... regenerate ... three days ... old system for regeneration no longer operating .... new system is just plain death ... Seems like I've heard this before, but can't quite place it.
Labels: Grand Blueprint
¶ 4:55 PM
