Naked Mole Rat Wins War on Cancer?

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Naked Mole Rat Wins War on Cancer

With its wrinkled skin and bucked teeth, the naked mole rat isn't going

to

win any beauty contests. But the burrowing, desert rodent is exceptional

in another way: It doesn't get cancer.

The naked mole rat's cells hate to be crowded, it turns out, so they

stop

growing before they can form tumors. The details could someday lead to a

new strategy for treating cancer in people.

In search of clues to aging, cell biologists Vera Gorbunova, Andrei

Seluanov, and colleagues at the University of Rochester have been

comparing rodents that vary in size and life span, from mice to beavers.

The naked mole rat stands out because it's small yet can live more than

28

years--seven times as long as a house mouse. Resistance to cancer could

be

a major factor; whereas most laboratory mice and rats die from the

disease, it has never been observed in naked mole rats.

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