PLoS Biology: Nanotubes Make Big Science This article reviews work done on TNT's or Tunneling Nanotubes that connect cells that are not in close proximity to each other. It seems to be a mechanism to ensure that cells that need to be together can do so when separated by large distances of up to several cell diameters. To envison developmental biology you have to think like a cell. If you had to connect with a particular cell you could send out diffusible signals but these may not provide the degree of accuracy that you require. In cases requiring greater accuracy, a cell could send out a TNT, connect after utilizing Recognition Factors and then influence the neighboring cell via the transfer of proteins and, apparently, even organelles (see article). One interesting note is that material does not travel within the nanotube--it's not a pipe--but on the surface of the TNT.
This article was recently published in PLOS. This is a great scientific publishing medium that doesn't charge anyone a cent to read their stuff, unlike Science and Nature and the others that hoard their publications at the expense of humanity. Anyway, the article points out that a boy being treated with stem cells for a rare genetic condition developed tumors of the brain and spinal cord. These results should come as no surprise for readers of this blog. The cells injected into the nerve tissues were allografts--they were obtained from a source other than the patients own tissues. These clearly will not be at home in another person's body and they will begin to express embryonic Cell Recognition Factors in the hope that they could establish communication. As we have learned here, a cell must know exactly where it is. Such communication must exist. If it does not, it would mean that A) any manner of invader could easily make its home in another multicellular organism, or B) any...
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