
Pregnant women are also at a higher risk for certain animal-related diseases. Some people are at higher risk for diseases animals can carryĬhildren younger than 5 years old, people with weakened immune systems, and people 65 years of age and older are more likely to get diseases spread between animals and people (also known as zoonotic diseases). Are there young children, older people, or people with weak immune systems who will care for or be around the pet?.Are pets allowed in my house, apartment, or condominium?.
What type of exercise does this pet need?. What type of habitat does this pet need to be healthy?. Do I have enough time to properly care for and clean up after the pet?. Ask yourself these questions before getting a pet: Do some research beforehand about the specific needs of the animal. Pick the Right Petīefore adopting a new pet, make sure that it is the right one for you and your family. "We think that lamin-B might play an evolutionarily conserved role in suppressing inflammatory genes in immune organs in the absence of infection or injury and our work could provide insight into immunosenescence in humans.Learn more about different types of pets and other animals. "Our findings have implications for mammals as well as for insects, as immune response genes in mammals also are known to have lamins present on them," Zheng explained. The un-suppressed immune response initiates the inflammation and resulting gut hyperplasia. The team's work revealed that when the fruit fly fat body was depleted of lamin-B, the normal suppression of genes involved in the immune response is reversed, just as it would be in response to bacterial infection or injury, but in this case there is no apparent infection or injury. In humans, diseases caused by mutations in lamins are called laminopathies and include premature aging.ī-type lamins have long been suspected to play a role in gene suppression by binding to segments of DNA. Lamins have diverse functions, including suppressing gene expression, and they are found in an array of tissues and organs. Lamin-B is part of the lamin family of proteins, which form the major structural component of the material that lines the inside of a cell's nucleus. Zheng and her team found that the gradual reduction of a protein called lamin-B in the fat bodies of aging flies is the culprit behind fat body inflammation and the resulting hyperplastic gut, all of which falls under the umbrella of immunosenescence. This reduction of the gut immune response causes the gut's stem cells to undergo excessive division and inappropriate differentiation, creating a condition called hyperplasia that shares features with the precancerous polyps found in human guts. These inflamed fly fat bodies then secrete proteins that lead to a reduction in immune response of the gut. Zheng and her team-Carnegie's Haiyang Chen and Xiaobin Zheng-found that the fruit fly fat body experiences a great deal of inflammation in aged flies. It is responsible for many immune functions.
Insects have an immune organ called the fat body, which is roughly equivalent to the mammalian fat and liver.