www.morphostasis.org.uk

Wilder speculations

So where could all this be leading? Here I have put together some ideas that I guess might prove fruitful. But you readers need to take it all with more than a pinch of salt; and I need to be ready to swallow much embarrassment.

To be continued .....

Cancer

Immunoediting - this is a metaphor that is danger of becoming a religion. The main reasons I say this are, first, I have recently read that "there is no longer any doubt that immunoediting happens". Strong (absolute) words for a metaphor. Second, the immunoediting concept places much emphasis on the cancer's "intention" to evolve into an anarchic clone. My guess is that we will eventually find that cancer is the outcome of a rare sequence of purely chance events that eventually establish a vicious cycle that is nigh impossible to break. There is no "intention" of the cancer cells to break away or take charge or to have an autonomous existence. On the vast majority of occasions this chance event is never reached and, even when it is, it is often linked to the declining efficiency of the aging morphostatic system.

Infection

A further consequence of the "denial of substrate" hypothesis is that, whenever there is an extended accumulation of tissue debris due to non-infectious causes, it is almost inevitable that colonisation - to some degree - will follow. Hence, in traumatic arthritis (among other things) genetic traces of microbes can be isolated - attempted colonisation is probably very frequent. This is counter to the generally held "sterile" view of the body's tissues. It is only the efficiency of mess clearance that holds off overt infection.