Elephants are gigantic creatures with 100 times more cells than humans. With such a large number of cells, it seems quite natural that elephants suffer more DNA damage to their cells than humans? The more the cells, the greater the mutations. Right? Also, elephants live pretty long - about 60 years in the wild. That would also increase the chances of cancer in these creatures? However, only 5% of elephants die due to cancer compared to 25% human deaths due to cancer.
How is this miracle possible? What makes these huge, hefty elephants evade the deadly cancer?
A new study provides an explanation.
p53 is a cancer protecting gene in our body. The gene p53 destroys any cell that harbours a cancerous DNA mutation by inducing it to commit suicide. We humans have only 2 copies of this p53 gene and elephants have 40 copies!!!
Yes, the large number of copies of the p53 gene is believed to be responsible for rendering the elephants resistant to cancer.
For further reading, visit the site http://news.sciencemag.org/plants-animals/2015/10/how-elephants-crush-cancer
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