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Remaining true to one’s identity

Nature Aging volume 1, pages 757–759 (2021)Cite this article

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The ability to remain true to cellular identity and function is lost during aging and carcinogenesis when DNA damage triggers inflammation that progressively erodes homeostatic cues. Shalabi et al. show that these losses are accelerated in patients with germline cancer mutations in DNA repair genes and are independent of chronological age.

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Fig. 1: Germline mutations in BRCA1, BRCA2 and PALB2 compromise DNA damage repair, promote inflammation and accelerate loss of lineage fidelity, thereby contributing to carcinogenesis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Cancer Institute 1 R35 CA 197694 and Cancer Research UK C19767/A27145 awards to T.D.T.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Joseph A. Caruso & Thea D. Tlsty

  2. Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA

    Thea D. Tlsty

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  1. Joseph A. Caruso
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  2. Thea D. Tlsty
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Correspondence to Joseph A. Caruso or Thea D. Tlsty.

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Caruso, J.A., Tlsty, T.D. Remaining true to one’s identity. Nat Aging 1, 757–759 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-021-00113-8

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