Fat Cells Are Mobile, Migrate As Needed To Heal Wounds Or Prevent/treat Infection

[haidut]

A very interesting study showing that far from being passive and strictly detrimental to health, fat cells are highly mobile and migrate readily through contraction/motility. These cells accumulate in areas with wounds or infection and release beneficial macrophages and peptides to help heal/cure these issues. In light of these properties, I suspect the fat accumulation in older age may be not just due to metabolism slowdown but also adaptive due to increased rates of chronic infections and proneness to poorly-healing wounds. This may explain part of the "obesity paradox", but I think the beneficial or detrimental effects of fat cells would depend largely on their fat composition - PUFA composition would have negative impact and SFA will be beneficial. This matches well with the clinical onservation that newborn babies with extra fat (which at birth is mostly saturated) fare much better when faced with neonatal infections and/or surgery than "lean" (read: emaciated) babies.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29486196
"...

• Fat body cells actively migrate to wounds using a peristaltic mode of motility
  
  
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  Fat body cells tightly seal the gap by forming lamellipodia around the wound margin
  
  
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  Fat body cells collaborate with macrophages to clear wound debris
  
  
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  Fat body cells locally release antimicrobial peptides at infected wounds
  

Adipocytes have many functions in various tissues beyond energy storage, including regulating metabolism, growth, and immunity. However, little is known about their role in wound healing. Here we use live imaging of fat body cells, the equivalent of vertebrate adipocytes in Drosophila, to investigate their potential behaviors and functions following skin wounding. We find that pupal fat body cells are not immotile, as previously presumed, but actively migrate to wounds using an unusual adhesion-independent, actomyosin-driven, peristaltic mode of motility. Once at the wound, fat body cells collaborate with hemocytes, Drosophila macrophages, to clear the wound of cell debris; they also tightly seal the epithelial wound gap and locally release antimicrobial peptides to fight wound infection. Thus, fat body cells are motile cells, enabling them to migrate to wounds to undertake several local functions needed to drive wound repair and prevent infections."

 

[Vinero]

What do you mean that older people have increased rate of chronic infection?
If you have an infection you are very ill, overproducing nitric oxide, serotonin, and need antibiotics as fast as possible.
I had an infection a while ago (pneumonia) and you feel really sick, couldn't eat, sleep or relax.
I think I overdid supplementing lysine, which blocks any arginine and nitric oxide the body might need to combat infection.
Warning To People Taking Lysine
It can actually be lethal if you don't get antibiotics. It happens fast, within 10 days of getting sick you could be dead if you don't get treated with antibiotics.

So how could there be a chronic infection in your body? Either your immune system gets rid of it when there are pathogens in your body,
or the bacteria overwhelm the immune system and you get all the symptoms of an acute infection: feeling very sick, need antibiotics fast.

 

[Blossom]

What do you mean that older people have increased rate of chronic infection?
If you have an infection you are very ill, overproducing nitric oxide, serotonin, and need antibiotics as fast as possible.
I had an infection a while ago (pneumonia) and you feel really sick, couldn't eat, sleep or relax.
I think I overdid supplementing lysine, which blocks any arginine and nitric oxide the body might need to combat infection.
Warning To People Taking Lysine
It can actually be lethal if you don't get antibiotics. It happens fast, within 10 days of getting sick you could be dead if you don't get treated with antibiotics.

So how could there be a chronic infection in your body? Either your immune system gets rid of it when there are pathogens in your body,
or the bacteria overwhelm the immune system and you get all the symptoms of an acute infection: feeling very sick, need antibiotics fast.

I'm pretty sure that once you have an infection the causative organism can and often does live on in your body. It's just a matter of the your human body (think immune system) keeping their population low or taking antibiotics to reduce their numbers. That's my understanding anyway.

 

[EIRE24]

What do you mean that older people have increased rate of chronic infection?
If you have an infection you are very ill, overproducing nitric oxide, serotonin, and need antibiotics as fast as possible.
I had an infection a while ago (pneumonia) and you feel really sick, couldn't eat, sleep or relax.
I think I overdid supplementing lysine, which blocks any arginine and nitric oxide the body might need to combat infection.
Warning To People Taking Lysine
It can actually be lethal if you don't get antibiotics. It happens fast, within 10 days of getting sick you could be dead if you don't get treated with antibiotics.

So how could there be a chronic infection in your body? Either your immune system gets rid of it when there are pathogens in your body,
or the bacteria overwhelm the immune system and you get all the symptoms of an acute infection: feeling very sick, need antibiotics fast.

Did you notice any positives from taking antibiotics?

 

[Vinero]

Did you notice any positives from taking antibiotics?

Yes. It cleared up my infection within a few days.
I make sure to always have some antibiotics around, in case I might get an infection.

 

[EIRE24]

I meant other benefits?

 

[Vinero]

I meant other benefits?

Yes, you feel less stressed when on antibiotics, a kind of calm, pleasant euphoria.

 

[haidut]

What do you mean that older people have increased rate of chronic infection?
If you have an infection you are very ill, overproducing nitric oxide, serotonin, and need antibiotics as fast as possible.
I had an infection a while ago (pneumonia) and you feel really sick, couldn't eat, sleep or relax.
I think I overdid supplementing lysine, which blocks any arginine and nitric oxide the body might need to combat infection.
Warning To People Taking Lysine
It can actually be lethal if you don't get antibiotics. It happens fast, within 10 days of getting sick you could be dead if you don't get treated with antibiotics.

So how could there be a chronic infection in your body? Either your immune system gets rid of it when there are pathogens in your body,
or the bacteria overwhelm the immune system and you get all the symptoms of an acute infection: feeling very sick, need antibiotics fast.

It's called chronic, low-grade infection. And it is pretty common, especially in the elderly and it usually involves the respiratory tract. It can in fact turn into an acute condition and kill if untreated (like you said). Chronic sinusitis and bronchitis are to very common chronic, low-grade URTI.
low-grade infection

 

[Vinero]

It's called chronic, low-grade infection. And it is pretty common, especially in the elderly and it usually involves the respiratory tract. It can in fact turn into an acute condition and kill if untreated (like you said). Chronic sinusitis and bronchitis are to very common chronic, low-grade URTI.
low-grade infection

What should a person do if they suspect low-grade infection? Keeping metabolism optimal and avoiding stress obviously.
Maybe take antibiotics from time to time? Or do you think taking antibiotics when not really sick is dangerous and can cause "antibiotic resistance"?
Every website I find when researching antibiotics keeps mentioning that bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics.
I don't know if I buy the whole "antibiotic resistance" thing, seems like fear-mongering. Just like they do with other helpful substances like aspirin, thyroid etc.
I 've used amoxicillin multiple times and it worked everytime just as good as the first time.

 

[haidut]

What should a person do if they suspect low-grade infection? Keeping metabolism optimal and avoiding stress obviously.
Maybe take antibiotics from time to time? Or do you think taking antibiotics when not really sick is dangerous and can cause "antibiotic resistance"?
I don't know if I buy the whole "antibiotic resistance" thing, seems like fear-mongering. Just like they do with other helpful substances like aspirin, thyroid etc.
I 've used amoxicillin multiple times and it worked everytime just as good as the first time.

I think taking antibiotics from time is a good idea. I think Peat told several people over email he takes ampicillin 2-3 times a week in 50mg doses. If the infection starts getting out of hand it should raise acute biomarkers like WBC, ferritin, ceruloplasmin, CRP, etc so it should be visible on common blood tests.

 

[Vinero]

I think taking antibiotics from time is a good idea. I think Peat told several people over email he takes ampicillin 2-3 times a week in 50mg doses. If the infection starts getting out of hand it should raise acute biomarkers like WBC, ferritin, ceruloplasmin, CRP, etc so it should be visible on common blood tests.

Interesting. Also taking some progesterone from time to time might be smart to keep infections under control.
"The thymus gland, the key organ of our immune system, is also profoundly dependent of progesterone". -Ray Peat.

 

[haidut]

Interesting. Also taking some progesterone from time to time might be smart to keep infections under control.
"The thymus gland, the key organ of our immune system, is also profoundly dependent of progesterone". -Ray Peat.

Yep, and that's because it is estrogen/cortisol/PUFA that destroy the thymus and progesterone opposes at least the first two.
Reducing Estrogen Synthesis Regenerates Thymus Destroyed By Aging

 

[goodandevil]

These stress-induced microvesicles ray spoke of in the most recent interview @haidut when he said giving plasma was a good way of getting rid of them, are those fatty acids he speaks of?

 

[haidut]

These stress-induced microvesicles ray spoke of in the most recent interview @haidut when he said giving plasma was a good way of getting rid of them, are those fatty acids he speaks of?

The microvesicles do indeed contain fats and proteins both of which they get from the cell from which the microvesicle was released. Given that Ray spoke of how stress leads to their formation and their known role in promoting aggressive cancer types, you can immediately see the connection between stress and cancer development/progression. No genes needed to explain any of that.
Microvesicles - Wikipedia

 

[Obi-wan]

Taking antibiotics can cause jock itch