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Proteins are also a major component of your cells. Outside of your cells, proteins constitute bone and soft tissue and help these structures to maintain their shape. Because they can be made into many different shapes and sizes, and they also constitute digestive enzymes, the antibodies in your blood, and serve many other functions. Proteins have many functions inside your cells as well. They perform all of the enzyme functions for energy production; they provide for repair of DNA when it is damaged; and, together with fats, they maintain the integrity of your cell's membrane. Proteins are located in your cell membrane, within the cell itself, and around your cells.
The proteins that compose the cell membrane serve a variety of important purposes, such as communication between your cells, and providing sites of attachment, so your cells can connect with the structures around and stay where they should. For example, bone cells attach to the bone matrix through proteins on their cell membranes, and liver cells stay in the liver by attaching to the liver tissue (matrix) through specific attachment proteins in their cell membranes. Cancer cells often have changes in these attachment proteins on their membranes, altering their ability to 'stick' or stay where they should, which allows them instead to move around the body. So, the proteins in your cell membrane are important not just for the functioning within the individual cell, but also for the health of your whole body.
Your cells must constantly communicate with each other, taking in nutrients from your bloodstream, and excreting wastes. Your cells do this by having proteins that respond to signals from your body stuck into each their membranes. These proteins acts as channels that can be opened or closed when your cell gets a signal to do so, or as information transporters, like a telegraph line across your membrane, to communicate what's going on outside or inside neighboring cells. This communication is vital for your ability to function as a whole body with all your cells working together.
As an example, think about when you eat a meal. The sugar (glucose) is released and taken into your body through the digestion process, during which it enters your bloodstream. Your body responds to the glucose in your blood by secreting insulin from your pancreas into your bloodstream. When the insulin gets to one of your cells that needs glucose, it attaches to a protein (receptor) on the cell's surface, which then activates, or opens, a gate in the cell to let the glucose enter that cell. This glucose is then either used by the cell to produce energy or is stored for future energy production.
Research has shown the nutrients you take in through your food can have a major influence on the health of your cells' membranes. In particular, the fats you eat have a direct effect on your cells because they become your cell membranes. Unsaturated fats, like the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish and nuts, are needed for your cell membranes to have the correct shape and ability to communicate. When you eat saturated fats, or trans-fatty acids, these fats also become part of your cell membranes, but they are more rigid and don't function like unsaturated fats. Research studies of cells in a culture dish, in which they can be seen under a microscope, show that saturated and trans-fats in the cell membrane make the cells less able to communicate and respond to signals; it's like the cell membranes become brittle.
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