Autophagy: How Zellis renews itself and keeps the body healthy

Dear Diary,

Imagine, today I was given an extra shift!

February 29th - a day that normally doesn't exist, but aha!, this year it does. Of course my calendar didn't have that listed. People have really strange inventions. But what the hell, as a cell I always have to be ready to fulfill my tasks in order to keep my human alive.

And under difficult conditions, because my human is still fasting. So I used the day to tidy up and clear out something - now that I'm less busy processing nutrients. When cleaning up, I use a special technique that works particularly well on an empty stomach - autophagy. Small garbage trucks, the so-called autophagosomes, drive around within my cell membrane and collect old and damaged organelles, proteins and other cell components.

The garbage trucks then move the collected cell waste to my recycling center, the lysosomes. There, the waste is broken down into its individual parts, such as amino acids and fatty acids, with the help of special enzymes. The dismantled building blocks are not just thrown away, but rather recycled to build new and healthy cell components. It's like my own recycling center, creating something new and cool from old crap!

Autophagy helps me renew myself, and it works the same way for my neighbors. So apparently this isn't a secret life hack that only I know.

This is the only way we can keep my human's body healthy. Because if the cellular waste is not recycled properly, it accumulates in me and puts a strain on me. It's like a full trash can that slowly starts to stink and causes problems - so the damaged proteins and other useless cell components could also cause illness in my human's body.

But not with me, dear diary. You know me as a busy cell. See you next time.

Stay cell fresh,

Zellis