Your body has it all – both the diseases and their healing powers, unless man interferes with it. Do you believe this? Perhaps no! But, a new study will surely lead you to thinking on these lines, if not to an absolute extend.
Yes, it has been found that our body itself can normalize skin cell growth. While on one hand, it can fight psoriasis and non-melanoma skin cancers, on the other, can slow down aging as well as skin form getting damaged by the sun.
The magic wand lies with a natural body lipid or fat – phosphatidylglycerol – which is thought to be able to signal cells for normalizing growth and maturation or differentiation.
Explaining the study, Dr. Wendy B. Bollag, cell physiologist at the Medical College of Georgia says,
This is serving as a signal, like an elevator operator. This way for normal keratinocyte differentiation. That’s good because without it, you get abnormal differentiation in skin diseases like psoriasis, non-melanoma skin cancer, some of the dermatitises; in a lot of these conditions, the cells proliferate too much and don’t differentiate properly. We think maybe in psoriasis, the phospholipase D and aquaporin-3 become disconnected so now they can’t produce phosphatidylglycerol. If you only put glycerol on it, it may not help.
The signaling pathway, the study reveals, is perhaps the most important, as it shows that by ‘bypassing’ it leads to dysfunctional in diseases like psoriasis. And, if the signal is given, it restores skin cells or keratinocytes’ normal differentiation all by itself.
Confident and optimistic about the finding, Dr. Bollag, said,
When we apply it to skin cells, we see the normalization ability. Proof of principle is the first phase. If in vivo data looks promising, we’ll put together a study we can take into the clinic.
This study is a breakthrough as a guide in piecing together the signaling pathway that prompts skin cells to stop multiplying and start differentiating.
