• Question: when bones brake, does the DNA continue to move around that area or does it avoid that area because the bone is broken???? @dittehedegaard

    Asked by to Ditte on 18 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ditte Hedegaard

      Ditte Hedegaard answered on 18 Jun 2014:

      Hello,

      When the bones break some of the bone cells, also called osteoblasts, will break free and either stay around the broken bone or go into the blood stream. All bone cells contain DNA, which means that you will have some DNA around the broken bone and some will be moved away with the blood. The bone cells are not build for being in the blood, so they will quickly die and the cell and it’s DNA will start breaking into small pieces. The blood vessels can be really narrow and too many dead cells or cell parts in them can cause blood clots, which will prevent blood in getting to the organs. To avoid this specialised immune system cells in the blood will ‘eat’ the dead cells and their DNA to get ride of them. The blood can than move freely through the veins without any obstacles.

      The immune system cells that does this are called macrophages (they are actually my favourite immune cells), you can see a video of a macrophage eating a cell on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWItglvTiLc

      I hope this answers your question?

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