Like teenagers, cells require constant communication with their peers. Today’s teens chatter endlessly over wireless networks. Cells, on the other hand, seem a bit more old-fashioned. A clandestine web of high-speed wires physically links cells like a biological Internet, scientists have discovered.
These long, filamentous fibers are called tunneling nanotubes. They lurk in lab dishes of human kidney cells, immune cells and cancer cells. The tunnels share the same tiny dimensions as the nanotubes that chemists create with carbon. But these nanotubes aren’t built by scientists. Tunneling nanotubes grow with no external interference, and they seem to offer a heretofore unknown way for cells to communicate.