Cells communicate with each other in the form of so-called messenger substancesIn the brain, this can be dopamine, GABA or acetylcholine, for example. The immune cells use a different language and send out interleukins such as IL-6. All of these transmitters ensure that the different cells in our body can work together. As we age, however, communication becomes increasingly difficult and error-prone. In this article, we will show you some examples of what changes in our body and also give you some tips from research on how to altered intercellular communication can address.
What do we mean by intercellular communication?
Before we start with the topic, we first need to clarify how cells communicate with each other. This is not as trivial as it may seem. If an immune cell suddenly discovers an intruder on its patrol route through our blood vessels, it can only communicate this by using special messenger substances.
To give you a more understandable example, let's take a quick look at how our body gets sugar into the cells. If we eat carbohydrate-rich food, our blood sugar toThese sugar molecules must enter our cells, e.g. muscle cells, so that they can be transported by the mitochondria can be converted into energy in the form of ATP.
But the glucose molecules that float in our blood cannot get into the muscle cells on their own. Someone has to open the “door” for them firstThis is done by the hormone insulin, which binds to the insulin receptor and thus opens the door for the glucose molecules. This means that after a meal, the sugar can be quickly transported from the blood to its place of action. As you can see, there are different components in the language of cells:
- The station: In this case the pancreas, which produces the hormone insulin and also releases it into the bloodstream
- The language": Imagine that every hormone (insulin, testosterone, cortisol), every neurotransmitter (dopamine, noradrenaline) and every mediator (interleukins) represents its own language
- The recipient: In order for spoken language to be understood, the receiving cells need receptors. Without these, a cell is insensitive to the signals, so it does not “understand” the language
Insulin resistance – an aspect of altered intercellular communication
Let's stick with our example and look at how communication changes over the years. Let's assume that you regularly eat too much and unfortunately your stressful everyday life has not allowed you to do any sport for years. What could happen now is one of the most common illnesses in Germany. Your cells become increasingly insulin resistant.
To stay with this fictitious example: While in the past it was enough for your pancreas to release 10 units of insulin into your bloodstream after eating a plate of pasta, today you need 20 units for the same amount of pasta. The reason? Your insulin receptors have become less sensitive to insulinThey now need more messenger substances to react at all.
The mean thing about it is that you won't notice anything at first. Only when your pancreas exceeds its limit and the blood sugar level still doesn't go down, then diabetes mellitus has manifested itself. You can find out more about this in our article about the insulin resistance.
Medicine has a whole arsenal of different medications available to fight diabetes. But you don't have to let it get that far!
Altered cell communication – more than just sugar metabolism
As we age, many processes in the body change, not only the sugar metabolism. Particularly noteworthy is the so-called Inflammaging. This neologism, which consists of the two words "inflammation" and "aging", has been defined as an independent Hallmark of Aging because it plays a crucial role in the aging process.
Inflammatory processes are part of everyday life in our body. What we perceive as fever or swelling during an illness is rather a mass communication between immune cellsBut it can also be much more “quiet”. For example, visceral fat tissue secretes some hormones and inflammatory substances that are associated with all kinds of age-related diseases. This almost “silent” inflammation is one of the main aspects that appears to be responsible for some diseases in old age.
Did you know? As you have already seen, a healthy blood sugar metabolism is essential for healthy aging. Especially in the early stages of insulin resistance, in addition to a change in diet, sport and Fast Two other substances also help. berberine is a naturally occurring substance from barberry and works in a similar way to the diabetes drug metformin.
And inositol, which has been shown in clinical studies to improve blood sugar control in women with PCOS. You can also find inositol in our innovatively formulated MoleQlar ONE.
Sirtuins take effect
When we talk about inflammation, our family of longevity genes is not far from the scene. We are, of course, talking about the sirtuins, a gene family with seven members (see also longevity pathways). Several studies have shown that SIRT1 can downregulate inflammatory genes via NF-kB, among other things.
Drug activation of SIRT1 confirmed this finding, while a reduction in it resulted in the development and progression of inflammatory diseases. SIRT2 and SIRT6 perform similar functions, albeit partly via different molecular pathways. However, the complex structure of intercellular communication extends beyond inflammation.
The bystander effect: intercellular communication can also work differently
“The probability of providing assistance (prosocial behavior) for people in an emergency situation decreases with the number of people present in the situation,” describes the Dorsch Lexicon for psychology the term bystander effect. All well and good, but what does this have to do with intercellular communication and aging?
The phenomenon that age-related changes in one tissue lead to age-specific changes in other tissues, falls under the molecular biology concept of the bystander effect. Let's imagine that one immune cell "encourages" the other to do nothing with the next bacterium, but just to watch. That is also a form of widespread failure to provide assistance, isn't it? Psychology and molecular biology are more closely intertwined in this respect than previously thought.
In addition to inflammatory messengers, there are other examples of “contagious aging“. senescent cells can trigger senescence in other, still healthy cells through direct contact. This process involves, among others, free radicals (ROS) (see mitochondrial dysfunction). Likewise, impaired kidney function in humans can increase the risk of heart disease.
But this bystander effect also has something good about it, because it also works backwards, as studies have shown. Lifespan extension interventions targeting one tissue may delay the aging process in other tissuesMolecular biology is ahead of psychology in this respect!
Restoration of faulty intercellular communication
We have heard a lot about how faulty intercellular communication occurs. It is time to think about how to prevent it. That is exactly what researchers have thought.
There are various ways to restore communication. Particularly relevant are different fasting methods to extend healthy lifespan and also the Transmission of systemic factors isolated from blood. In addition, the administration of anti-inflammatory drugs such as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) increased life expectancy in mice.
Very exciting and still relatively unexplored is the intestinal microbiome. It is known that the intestinal microbiome influences the function of the immune system and metabolism. Therefore, it seems possible to extend human lifespan by changing the composition of the gut bacterial ecosystem. Read more about this in the article about the 11th Hallmark of Aging.
threat and resource
There is compelling evidence that aging goes beyond the cell-autonomous level. There is a generalized change in communication between cells, which fortunately also offers opportunities for intervention. Similar to the Stem cell exhaustion, many hallmarks of aging have altered intercellular communication as their final pathway.
The small changes at the level of the individual cell through genomic instability or telomere shortening result in a general reaction, the breadth of which sometimes brings benefits and sometimes harm. The balance shifts noticeably towards harm as we age.
The bystander effect also shows that the body's ability to adapt in old age can be as much a threat as it is a resource. The question remains as to how we can specifically use this resource. Research has yet to provide us with an answer to this.
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Altered intercellular communication – Conclusion
Our cells communicate with each other every day in a variety of languages, without us noticing. It is only in old age, when the changes in intercellular communication become noticeable, that we feel some of the consequences. Depending on which cells are affected, we can already do something about it todayEspecially with regard to insulin resistance, there is very good data that sufficient exercise, a healthy Diet, fasting and Dietary supplements such as berberine can reverse insulin resistance.
The next article in this series is about the tenth sign of aging: Inflammaging.
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