Cells communicate with each other in the form of so-called messenger substances. In the brain, for example,b Be dopamine, GABA or acetylcholine. The immune cells use a different language and send out interleukins such as IL-6. All of these transmitters guarantee that the different cells in our body can work together. As you get older, however, communication becomes more and more difficult. error-prone. In this article we will show you, using a few examples, what changes in our body and also give you a few tips from research on how to change intercellular communication can tackle.
What do we mean by intercellular communication?
Before we start the topic, we first have to clarify how cells communicate with each other. This is not as trivial as it might seem. If an immune cell suddenly discovers an intruder on its patrol route through our 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 food rich in carbohydrates, our blood sugar increases. These sugar molecules have to get into our cells, e.g.b into the muscle cells so that they can be converted into energy in the form of ATP with the help of the mitochondria .
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 first. This happens through the hormone insulin, which binds to the insulin receptor and thus opens the door for the glucose molecules. In this way, after a meal, the sugar can be quickly removed from the blood and to its place of action. As you can see, there are different components to the language of cells:
- The transmitter: 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, norepinephrine) and every mediator (interleukins) represents its own language
- The receiver: In order for spoken language to be understood, the receiver cells need receptors. Without this, a cell is insensitive to the signals, so it does not “understand” language
Insulin resistance – an aspect of altered intercellular communication
Let's stick with our example and look at how communication has changed over the years. Let's assume that you regularly eat too much and unfortunately your stressful everyday life hasn't really allowed you to do any exercise for years. What could happen now is one of the most common illnesses in Germany. Your cells are becoming 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 the bloodstream after 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 insulin. They now need more messenger substances in order to react at all.
The mean thing about it is that you won't notice anything about it at first. Only when your pancreas exceeds its limit and the blood sugar level does not go down does diabetes mellitus manifest itself. You can find out more about this in our article about insulin resistance.
Medicine provides a whole arsenal of different medications to combat diabetes. But you don't have to let it get that far!
Changed cell communication – more than just sugar metabolism
Many processes in the body change as we age, not just sugar metabolism. Particularly noteworthy is the so-called Inflammaging. This neologism, which consists of the two words “inflammation” and “aging”, was 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 actually mass communication between immune cells. But it is also much “quieter”. For example, the visceral fatty 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, healthy blood sugar metabolism is fundamentally important for healthy aging. Especially in the early stages of insulin resistance, in addition to a change in diet, exercise and fasting two other substances can also help you. Berberine is a naturally occurring substance from barberry and works in a similar way to the diabetes drug metformin.
And Inositol, which was able to improve blood sugar control in women with polycystic ovary syndrome in clinical studies. You can also find inositol in our innovatively formulated MoleQlar ONE.
Sirtuins take hold
When inflammation is mentioned, 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 showed that SIRT1 can downregulate inflammatory genes via NF-kB, among other things.
Drug activation of SIRT1 confirmed this finding, while a reduction in turn resulted in the development and progression of inflammatory diseases. SIRT2 and SIRT6 do similar things, albeit partly through different molecular pathways. The complex structure of intercellular communication extends beyond inflammation.
The bystander effect: intercellular communication can be done differently
“The probability of providing assistance (prosocial behavior) to people who find themselves in an emergency situation decreases with the number of people present in this situation,” is how the Dorsch Lexikon for Psychology describes the term bystander effect . That's 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 when it comes to the next bacterium, but just watch. This is somehow a form of spreading failure to provide assistance, or? psychology and molecular biology are more closely intertwined in this respect than expected.
In addition to inflammatory messenger substances, there are other examples of “contagious aging”. Senescent cells can trigger senescence in other, still healthy cells via direct contact. Among other things, free radicals (ROS) are involved in this process (see mitochondrial dysfunction). Impaired kidney function can also increase the risk of heart disease in humans.
But this bystander effect also has something good, because it also works backwards, as studies have shown. Lifespan extension interventions targeting one tissue may delay aging in other tissues. Molecular biology is ahead of psychology!
The mitochondria are the power plants of our cells. You want to know how you can strengthen the small generators? Then click on the picture.
Restoration of faulty intercellular communication
We have now heard a lot about how faulty intercellular communication occurs. Time to think about how to prevent that. That's exactly what research thought.
There are various ways to restore communication. Particularly relevant are various fasting methods to extend healthy life span and also the transfer of systemic factors that have been isolated from blood. Additionally, administration of anti-inflammatory agents such as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in mice showed increased life expectancy.
The intestinal microbiome is very exciting and still comparatively unexplored. 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 intestinal bacterial ecosystem. You can find out more about this in articles about the 11th. Hallmark of Aging
Threat and Resource
There is compelling evidence that aging extends beyond the cell-autonomous level. There is a generalized change in communication between cells, which fortunately also offers opportunities for intervention. Similar to stem cell exhaustion, many hallmarks of aging have altered intercellular communication as their final route.
The small changes at the level of the individual cell caused by genomic instability or telomere shortening result in a general reaction that is broad in its breadth sometimes brings benefit and sometimes harm. As we age, the balance increasingly shifts towards damage.
The bystander effect also shows that the body's ability to adapt in old age can be just as much a threat as it is a resource. The question remains how we can specifically use this resource. Research still owes us this answer.
Bioavailable berberine with chromium and zinc in the mineral complex Berbersome
Changed intercellular communication – conclusion
Our cells communicate with each other every day in a wide variety of languages, completely unnoticed by us. Only in old age, when the changes in intercellular communication become noticeable, do we feel some of the consequences. Depending on which cells are affected, we can do something about it today. Especially 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 hallmark of aging: Inflammaging.
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