We all have terms like autophagy and natural interventions like fasting can accelerate this process. But less do we know it’s one of the processes in the garbage dumping of the cell. Though it’s a main path to healing, there is one more emerging and controversial mechanism that happens mainly in the gut which is termed as – “Cathartocytosis”.
🧹What is Cathartocytosis?
In simple terms, it’s a process in which the cells rapidly eject large amounts of unwanted material – organelles, toxic compounds, misfolded protein components, just like how you ‘vomit’, all at once.
A fast-forward world has a sped-up waste disposal mechanism- just like a dishwasher for washing dishes altogether or washing machine for washing clothes altogether but at a very fast pace unlike autophagy which does one by one.
🧐So, is it a boon or a bane?
This new discovery shapes our understanding of cellular recovery, cellular reprogramming, regeneration and repair mechanisms (the 4 Rs):
- Rapid Healing: Focus on gut- cathartocytosis kicks in after injury, acts like a trampoline in cells, become smaller forms and dedifferentiate for the repair of epithelial lining.
- Cellular reprogramming: It makes cells shed its identity to adopt a new role- like that of stem cells, after reverting to smaller cells for speeding up tissue repair.
- Beyond Autophagy: “Cell purging or cell jettisoning” that helps cellular decluttering, adds on new light to the existing waste management systems.
- Cancer Risk: Cathartocytosis is by nature very fast and messy, hence may cause chronic inflammation/ injury, and continued process may become the breeding ground for cancer. But the good part is sustained cellular mess (without proper handling by neighbouring cells, immune systemsor microbes) and unresolved chronic infection, inflammation and injury maybe a marker to detect cancer.
🦠Why Gut?
The gut faces constant stress from food, microbes, acids, and hormones- making inflammation a frequent challenge. Cathartocytosis gives gut the clean state to recoil quickly to protect from leaky barriers and damage.
🏥Future Medical Implications:
- Regenerative therapies- in the gut, brain, heart
- Cancer detection- to detect prior to its onset
- Anti-aging strategies- promote cellular cleansing to help anti-aging
💭Thoughts at your disposal
Cathartocytosis is a cellular decluttering method to increase its focus on growth and repair. As modern problem needs modern solutions, this one adds up too. For the gut, it’s a very regenerative process, throwing light on how our body maintain resilience.
“If autophagy is the slow and steady janitor, cathartocytosis is the emergency clean-up crew- fast, messy, but sometimes lifesaving.”
References and Links:
Brown JW, Lin X, Nicolazzi GA, Liu X, Nguyen T, Radyk MD, Burclaff J, Mills JC. Cathartocytosis: Jettisoning of cellular material during reprogramming of differentiated cells. Cell Reports. 2025 Aug 26;44(8).
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211124725008411
Written by Dr Shobhitha Tantry B