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Ahhhh, swelling

7/29/2015

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Inflammation, swelling, increased blood flow, cytokines, prostaglandins
We saw how DNA damaged by UVB radiation is fixed by activating a pathway called NER, which stands for N-ucleotide E-xcision R-epair. This process requires the slowing down of other cellular processes, so can you imagine what would happen when DNA is continually being assaulted by UVB radiation? The continual onslaught of damage causes our DNA to send out an S.O.S.

What are these signals? They are called cytokines, tiny proteins that signal other proteins, or, directly signal a cell to do something helpful. Prostaglandins are bigger molecules that play a major role in the inflammatory response. These signals use our blood stream to travel through to get to the damaged sites. They then squeeze out from the blood vessels into the damaged site, causing that characteristic swelling and pain of sunburn.

Prostaglandins, while extremely important in the inflammatory process, can get a bit overzealous in some folks like me. When they are over-produced they can have negative impacts upon us. Can anyone guess what kinds of negative outcomes can occur?

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