Circadian clocks in breast tissue may point to the links between cancer and ageing, researchers say.
Dr Qing-Jun Meng of Manchester University, UK, and colleagues took a close look at cell-intrinsic circadian clocks.
They found that the ageing of breast tissue has a central role in controlling these clocks. The stiffness of tissue, in particular, led to clocks slowing down, they found.
Their findings appeared in Nature Communications on Monday (30 January).
"We reveal that the breast epithelial clock is regulated by the mechano-chemical stiffness of the cellular microenvironment in primary cell culture," they write.
"Moreover, the mammary clock is controlled by the periductal extracellular matrix in vivo, which contributes to a dampened circadian rhythm during ageing."
They add that: "Genetic perturbation, or age-associated disruption of self-sustained clocks, compromises the self-renewal capacity of mammary epithelia."
This research provides a potential mechanism to explain how ageing influences the amplitude and function of this tissue, they believe.
Dr Meng said: "We identified some of the clock target genes within breast tissue, which are known to be involved with tumour formation. There is now a widening interest in the importance of stem cells for the formation of breast cancers – so our findings in relation to that are of much interest."
Yang, N. et al. Cellular mechano-environment regulates the mammary circadian clock. Nature Communications 30 January 2017 doi: 10.1038/ncomms14287 [abstract]
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