Anastasis

[Zar]

I've been recently studying the whole mitochondriac business, and while I was working I met another construction worker who happened to be a pre-med student we began talking about mitochondria. He mentioned that there is a newly discovered process that his teacher had shown him called Anastasis, basically the reversal of apoptosis. I've searched through medical journals and have found the research he pointed to. This research is still in it's early developments but I think it is one to keep an eye out.

here is the link to the research papers http://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/01/23/102640

Abstract

During apoptosis, executioner caspase activity has been considered a point of no return. However, recent studies show that cells can survive caspase activation following transient apoptotic stimuli, a process named anastasis. To identify a molecular signature, we performed whole transcriptome RNA sequencing of untreated, apoptotic, and recovering HeLa cells. We found that anastasis is an active, two-stage program. During the early stage, cells transition from growth-arrested to growing. In the late stage, cells change from proliferating to migratory. Strikingly, some early recovery mRNAs were elevated first during apoptosis, implying that dying cells poise to recover, even while still under apoptotic stress. Furthermore, TGFβ-induced Snail expression is required for anastasis, and recovering cells exhibit prolonged elevation of pro-angiogenic factors. This study demonstrates similarities in the anastasis genes, pathways, and cell behaviors to those activated in wound healing. This study identifies a repertoire of potential targets for therapeutic manipulation of this process.

and here is another link to the same research carried at UN of Cali. https://labs.mcdb.ucsb.edu/montell/denise/research/cell-survival-anastasis

What it states is that:

Cell Survival by Anastasis

Cells face a continual struggle between life and death, fought at the biochemical level between pro-death and pro-survival stimuli. Denise Montell's lab has recently discovered a surprising reversibility of the cell suicide process known as apoptosis. Cells that have progressed far beyond steps previously considered to be points of no return can reverse the dying process, recover and go on to proliferate. This has both positive and negative consequences. We are testing the hypothesis that the ability of cells to return from the brink of death – which we have named anastasis (Greek: "rising to life") - serves to salvage cells that are difficult to replace such as heart muscle cells or neurons in the adult brain. Therefore discovering how to enhanceanastasis holds the potential to lead to revolutionary new therapies for heart and neurodegenerative diseases.

So it seems like cells can undergo a process of complete restoration when they are still undergoing apoptosis. My co-worker mentioned that these cells that undergo anastasis also provide much energy to the cells around it and help revive them as well. I have yet to dig deeper into this research paper but it's a very interesting discovery.