Bacteria Promote Cancer by Enhancing Stem Cell Replication and Turnover

Bacterial infection has been linked to cancer risk in some cases, and here researchers propose that this is because the bacterial species can cause some stem cell populations to replicate more frequently. Greater cell activity in this fashion over time raises the risk of a cancerous mutation occurring. The authors of the study examine only the one case in which a bacteria-cancer association is well studied, but we might speculate on similar situations elsewhere in the body. While it has long been recognized that certain viruses can cause cancer by inserting oncogenes into the host cell DNA, the fact that some bacteria can also cause cancer has been slower to emerge and much harder to prove. While it is now clear that most cases of stomach cancer are linked to chronic infections with H. pylori, the mechanism remains unknown. Researchers have spent many years investigating this bacterium and the changes it induces in the cells of the stomach epithelium. In particular, they were puzzled how malignancy could be induced in an environment in which cells are rapidly replaced. It was suspected that the answer might lie in the stem cells found at the bottom of the glands that line the inside of the stomach, which continually replace the remaining cells 'from the bottom up' - and which are the only long-lived cells in the stomach. Researchers have now overturned the established dogma to show that H. pylori not only infects the surface cells, which are about to be slough...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs