How muscle cells seal their membranes
By: Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Date Published: March 14 2012
Every cell has a thin double layer of lipids (which is also called the plasma membrane) to protect and separate the insides of the from the cell outside the cell. If damage is done to the plasma membrane the cell might die. For example, when you walk down hill many small holes are made in the plasma membranes of your muscle cells. But to prevent death the muscle cells have a special way of sealing themselves closed. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Heidelberg University were the first to observe this happening in a live organism. Prof. Uwe Strähle and Dr. Urmas Roostalu were observing this happen in the muscle cells of a zebra fish larva. The scientists made tiny holes in the zebra fish larva’s muscles with lasers and observed what would happen next under that microscope. The Dysferlin and Annexin A6 proteins quickly form together to repair the damaged membrane. Other Annexins accumulate the membrane. These studies say that the muscle cell has a multilayered repair patch and the inside membrane just peels off. This study will contribute to finding new proteins and can open up new possibilities in biotechnology.
This article is connected to what we are learning about in science class because right now our topic is cells, bacteria, viruses, fungi and microscopes and this article talked about muscle cells. I found this current event on http://www.biologynews.net and it was the first one on the page. The title of article looked quite interesting to me so I decided to read more. I thought that this article was very interesting because this article explains about how muscle cells are unique from other cells and how scientists find out new thing everyday which might lead to new inventions. I felt very interested to read on while I was reading this article because it was written in an exciting way. I think that this article taught me many new things: that muscle cells are unique from other cells and how their membranes are repaired with proteins.
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