Research Paper|Volume 2, Issue 2|pp 82—92

Circadian disruption induced by light-at-night accelerates aging and promotes tumorigenesis in young but not in old rats

Irina A. Vinogradova¹, Vladimir N. Anisimov², Andrey V. Bukalev¹, Viktor A. Ilyukha^1,³, Evgeniy A. Khizhkin³, Tatiana A. Lotosh¹, Anna V. Semenchenko², Mark A. Zabezhinski²

¹Petrozavodsk State University, Petrozavodsk 185910, Russia
²Department of Carcinogenesis and Oncogerontology, N.N.Petrov Research Institute of Oncology, St. Petersburg 197758, Russia
³Institute of Biology, Karelian Research Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, Petrozavodsk 185610; Russia

Received: January 25, 2009Accepted: March 2, 2010Published: March 4, 2010

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.100120

Copyright: © 2010 Vinogradova et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

We evaluated the effect of exposure to constant light started at the age of 1 month and at the age of 14 months on the survival, life span, tumorigenesis and age-related dynamics of antioxidant enzymes activity in various organs in comparison to the rats maintained at the standard (12:12 light/dark) light/dark regimen. We found that exposure to constant light started at the age of 1 month accelerated spontaneous tumorigenesis and shortened life span both in male and female rats as compared to the standard regimen. At the same time, the exposure to constant light started at the age of 14 months failed to influence survival of male and female rats. While delaying tumors in males, constant light accelerated tumors in females. We conclude that circadian disruption induced by light-at-night started at the age of 1 month accelerates aging and promotes tumorigenesis in rats, however failed affect survival when started at the age of 14 months.