Chronic Jet Lag Weakens the Immune System, may Create Cancer Conditions: Study

Chronic jet lag affects the microenvironment surrounding cancer cells, making it more favorable for tumor growth, and also inhibits the body's natural immune defenses.

Chronic jet lag modifies the microenvironment surrounding tumor cells, making it more favorable for tumor growth, and also inhibits the body's natural immune defenses, reports a new study. The findings of the study are published in the journal Science Advances.

The study also helps clarify why some tumors win the race when a person is exposed to the chronically stressful situations that happen when the environment and the body's clocks are misaligned.

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‘If someone has a proliferative disorder, like cancer, doing shift work, or constantly changing time zones may increase the problem by weakening the immune system response to tumor growth.’

According to the experts, every cell in your body has its own set of molecular clocks, a group of genes, proteins, and signaling chemicals that set the speed for cell growth, division, and decay.

In cancer cells, these clocks are often modified, which allows the tumor to set its own speed for rapid, unchecked proliferation.

The researchers examined two groups of mice that were injected with cancer cells. The first group of mice was exposed to a normal circadian cycle, and the second group's light and dark exposure were changed by six hours every two days.

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A month later, the investigators noted that the tumors in the jet-lagged group were approximately three times the size of the control group. They also analyzed samples from the microenvironment surrounding the tumor, the spleen, which produces immune cells, and the liver.

The researchers discovered peculiar contrasts in how the immune system responded to the tumor.

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The researchers found the levels of different types of immune cells known as macrophages were inverted to be more prone to allow tumor growth in the jet-lagged group.

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Source-Medindia