Our cells carry a built-in self-repair switch — scientists just found it

When bacterial toxins punch holes in our cells — the damage behind infections like pneumonia and strep — the body already carries a repair kit. Researchers at Tokyo's Juntendo University discovered that a natural fat-based signal called 12-HHT flips a cellular 'self-repair switch' (a receptor named BLT2), helping cells patch their own membranes. Cells with the switch turned up survived damage that destroyed cells without it. Published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Cell Biology, the finding could one day point to treatments that help the body heal wounds and fight severe infections from within.