At https://phys.org/news/2025-09-electricity-plays-role-body-cell.html … There is a lot of electricity in the universe. It plays a significant role in life on Earth. At the link above we hear that human cells use electricity to protect us against diseases. Strokes and cancer seem to arise as a result of changes to the protection electricity affords us – and the same must be true of other life forms. In other words, it may play a part in evolution.
Epithelial cells line all organs in the body. They turnover rapidly in order to maintain a tightly packed protective layer. They undergo a process called extrusion to eliminate excess or weak cells, essential to balance cell division and cell death. It may be related to why the body has a self healing mechanism. Extrusion, itself. is a fundamental process common in living organisms from sea sponges to humans. It drives most cell death, and leads to replacement by fresh and more vigorous cells. When it goes wrong the balance of healthy cells is disrupted and opens the body to attack from diseases. Epithelial cells spend a remarkable amount of energy establishing and maintaining an electrically charged surface, or membrane. Using live imaging from microscopes scientists noticed a lightning flash around epithelial cellls before they extrude, stemming from an electrical current. Electricity is used to identify and expel cellls that become weak or low in energy.
The study and research was done at Kings College and the Francis Crick Institute. They add, overconsumption, presumably over eating, might override extrusion and prevent the elimination of defective cells, triggering cancers. At the opposite position, energy depletion following a stroke caused by impacted blood supply, may lead to excess extrusion and organ damage. The first idea may stem from the fact cancers are more common in well nourished parts of the world. However, in those places people live longer and cancer is mainly a disease of the elderly. Not entirely of course but as cancer is more prevalent in the elderly the statistics may simply be showing that people in less nourished countries die before cancers become active. Having said that the key to cancer may lie in this research – with a bit of prodding.
See the full article at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09514-w …