Further notes about the morphostasis concept – split files

(42) More on perspective distortion

Cell have recently published an article on apoptosis and how it is "hidden" from the immune system. The article abstract states ". . . (this) has led to the suggestion that caspases are activated not just to kill but to prevent dying cells from triggering a host immune response. Here, we show that the caspase cascade suppresses type I interferon (IFN) production . . .//. . . Thus, the apoptotic caspase cascade functions to render mitochondrial apoptosis immunologically silent." This is how Science Daily reported it: "The research answers a decades–old mystery about the death of cells, which in some situations can alert the immune system to potential danger, but in other circumstances occurs 'silently', unnoticed by immune cells. /p/ Silent cell death, or apoptosis, is a controlled way for the body to eliminate cells that may be damaged, old, or surplus to the body's requirements, without causing collateral damage. This 'normal' cell death process is ignored by the immune system. In contrast, the death of cells at sites of infection or damage can alert the immune system to be on the lookout for danger."

So, apoptotic cell death does not trigger an immune response then!! This, surely, just continues the fuzzy thinking that is inherited from traditional perspectives of the immune system acquired from the perception that it is "a bug hunting and killing system". I will bet heavily on the following. ALL debris is processed by amateur and professional phagocytes. Dendritic cells are specialised phagocytes that efficiently process such debris for the attention of the adaptive immune system. ALL debris provokes an adaptive immune activation of some sort if appropriate paratopes can be activated. It is the balance of tolerance to aggression that is skewed by apoptosis; not the presence or absence of a response. To say that apoptosis is hidden from the adaptive immune system is – I contend – almost certainly WRONG, WRONG, WRONG.