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Cellular Cannibalism And Its Effects On Human Eating Essay

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Introduction
The property of a cell to phagocytise or engulf another cell similar to its own or any other is termed as cellular cannibalism. It was first described by Leyden in 1904 and were referred as “bird – eye cells”. They are also known as “signet-ring cells”, due to their appearance. [1] [2]
Cannibalistic cells were initially noticed in cytological smears where the cell had ingested another cell. These cells consisted of a vacuole with the ingested cell and this vacuole pushed the nucleus to the periphery. [1]
The word cannibalism is derived from cannibals meaning human eating. Historic evidence suggest that a particular clan of Spanish people called as ‘Carib’ used to practise the act of cannibalism, whereas is Greece the act of cannibalism was referred to as ‘Anthropophagy’ – anthropos refers to man and phagein is synonymous to eating. [3]. Cellular cannibalism has fascinated researchers of oncology recently, as it describes the adaptive strategy of malignant cells to survive.
Self-cannibalism (macro- autophagy) allows cells to survive by a synchronized process of cell repair that includes by molecule and organelle re-cycling. It also illustrates a cell death pathway through specific features, segregating autophagy from other cell death processes. The cells deploying intense autophagic activity were capable to engulf and digest entire cell siblings; this phenomenon somewhat resembles 'xeno-cannibalism’, which is an exacerbation of self-cannibalism and provides

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