Complexity Digest 2008.39 - 09

26-Sept-2008

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Aletter from Gottfried Mayer to our readers and friends is at http://www.comdig.de/GMLetter.html

Programmed Cell Death Contributes Force To Movement Of Cells, ScienceDaily Bookmark and Share

Excerpts: In addition to pruning cells out of the way during embryonic development, the much-studied process of programmed cell death, or apoptosis, has been newly found to exert significant mechanical force on surrounding cells. This mechanical force may be harnessed throughout biology by tissues to aid wound formation, organ development (...) according to a Duke University team that melds biology with physics to investigate force at the cellular level. Cells are known to move in coordinated fashion during the closure of an eye-shaped opening on the back of a developing fruit fly embryo, a model system Duke biophysicists have been working on for nearly a decade. (...)