Researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have identified the cell that causes retinoblastoma, shedding new light on the subject and also disproving a long-accepted theory of nerve growth and development. Retinoplastoma is a cancer in the retina, the multi-layered membrane at the back of the eye containing cells that are sensitive to light and that triggers nerve impulses to the brain, forming visual images.
The recent finding has been an unexpected turn of events; the discovery that fully differentiated neurons in the brain—cells with a specific function and purpose—can undergo cell division and multiply to cause retinoblastoma also challenges many previously held beliefs concerning not only the cause of eye cancer, but also the behavior of cancer cells. The once popularly held belief that cancer cells are most aggressive when they are undifferentiated was proven false through recently conducted studies that showed fully matured neurons rapidly multiplying to produce a very aggressive cancer.
Armed with new insight into the cause of retinoblastoma, investigators hope to pursue methods in which nerve cells may be manipulated to duplicate themselves. This new finding aids in the search for an effective treatment even for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Link: http://www.biology-online.org/articles/st-jude-identifies-specific-cell.html
It never occurred to me that it is possible to have cancer in the eye. How horriffic! So your article says that retina cells have the capability to divide, but only exercise this capability when affected by cancer. Do our eyes normally stay the same size with the same exact cells our entire lives, if they typically are not using their mitosis capabilities?
ReplyDeleteIf they found a way to stop the multiplying of such cells would there then be a way to remove cancer - not just of the eye but of any kind - to allow the cells around it to function properly? Interesting thought...
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