PubMed · 5111765
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H Stern. 1971. Clinical genetics.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5111765/
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Advanced maternal age is a well-established risk factor for adverse reproductive outcomes due to increased rates of aneuploidy. However, emerging evidence indicates that the genetic consequences of maternal aging extend well beyond chromosome mis-segregation. Aging oocytes acquire a broad spectrum of genetic abnormalities, including maternally derived nuclear de novo mutations (DNMs) and mitochondrial DNA mutations, together with epigenetic dysregulation of DNA methylation and post-translational modification levels. These changes reflect the unique biology of the female germline in which oocytes remain arrested in meiotic prophase I for decades. Age-related deterioration of key processes, such as erosion of cohesion complexes, altered meiotic recombination, and weakened spindle assembly checkpoint surveillance collectively destabilize meiotic chromosome architecture, directly driving chromosome mis-segregation. At the same time, accumulation of endogenous DNA damage and declining DNA damage and repair processes increase the chances of transmitting lesions that can be converted into sequence-level mutations during the earliest embryonic divisions, when genome maintenance relies exclusively on maternal factors. High-resolution sequencing studies further demonstrate that maternal aging is associated with increased DNMs burden in both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA. Together, these findings support a model in which maternal aging is a driver of genome-wide instability that links aneuploidy and mutagenesis through shared defects in meiotic surveillance, declining DNA repair efficiency, and mitochondrial function. This framework positions delayed childbearing as a multifaceted genetic risk factor that extend beyond aneuploidy to include mutations and other genomic alterations that can impact intergenerational genetic risk.
Throughout the last century, aneuploidy has been cemented as a hallmark of cancer. Although the association of aneuploidy with tumorigenesis has been well established, the role of these genetic imbalances in tumor formation has only recently begun to be elucidated. Advancements in genomics have revealed the complexity and context dependence of the effect of aneuploidy on cancer growth, while developments in genetic editing have allowed for proper modeling of specific aneuploidies. In this review, we discuss the key factors to consider when studying the role of aneuploidy in cancer and the tools that are available to do so. We then highlight recent studies that establish phenotypic contributions of aneuploidy to tumorigenicity. In particular, we highlight how general aneuploidy and chromosomal instability affect the tumor microenvironment and how specific chromosomal alterations, including the loss of chromosome 9p and the gain of chromosomes 8q and 1q, influence tumor behavior and therapeutic responses. Finally, we emphasize the potential of targeting aneuploidy-induced vulnerabilities to improve cancer treatment outcomes.
Largely on the basis of studies using the potent clastogen ionizing radiation, it has been widely assumed that up-regulation of the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor p21(waf1cip1) in cultured cells exposed to DNA-damaging agents is contingent upon the presence of functional p53 tumor suppressor protein. Nevertheless, we demonstrate here that the model mutagen 254-nm UV light induces p21(waf1cip1) protein and concomitant G1 arrest in normal human skin fibroblasts, as well as in p53-deficient fibroblasts derived from cancer-prone Li-Fraumeni syndrome patients. However, as expected, following exposure to ionizing radiation, elevated p21(waf1cip1) protein levels and G1 arrest were observed only in normal fibroblasts. These data provide a prominent and clinically relevant example in which p21(waf1cip1)-mediated growth arrest occurs independently of p53 in human cells treated with a model DNA-damaging agent.