Drop of connexins: a possible link between aging and cancer?
The incidence of cancer increases with age but we do not know why. As a working hypothesis we propose here that cells somehow initiated in vivo in the course of life and finally engaged in the aging program, which involves a drop of connexins with loss of cell-to-cell communication (equivalent to the promotion phase in the multistep process of carcinogenesis), may recover their growth potential, thus allowing cancer to progress. This is supported by evidence that: (i) connexin 43 (Cx43) acts as a tumor suppressor; (ii) cx43 and gap junction intercellular communication drop in precancerous lesions and in tumors of various origins, as well as in aging cells; (iii) telomerase is activated in cancerous somatic cells.
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D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000502:physiology; D016922:Cellular Senescence / Q000502:physiology; D018031:Connexin 43 / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology*
D018031:Connexin 43