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Deer antlers: the fastest growing tissue with least cancer occurrence

Cell Death & Differentiation volume 30, pages 2452–2461 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Deer antlers are a bony organ solely able to acquired distinct unique attributes during evolution and all these attributes are against thus far known natural rules. One of them is as the fastest animal growing tissue (2 cm/day), they are remarkably cancer-free, despite high cell division rate. Although tumor-like nodules on the long-lived castrate antlers in some deer species do occur, but they are truly benign in nature. In this review, we tried to find the answer to this seemingly contradictory phenomenon based on the currently available information and give insights into possible clinic application. The antler growth center is located in its tip; the most intensive dividing cells are resident in the inner layer of reserve mesenchyme (RM), and these cells are more adopted to osteosarcoma rather than to normal bone tissues in gene expression profiles but acquire their energy mainly through aerobic oxidative phosphorylation pathway. To counteract propensity of neoplastic transformation, antlers evolved highly efficient apoptosis exactly in the RM, unparalleled by any known tissues; and annual wholesale cast to jettison the corps. Besides, some strong cancer suppressive genes including p53 cofactor genes and p53 regulator genes are highly positively selected by deer, which would have certainly contributed to curb tumorigenesis. Thus far, antler extracts and RM cells/exosomes have been tried on different cancer models either in vitro or in vivo, and all achieved positive results. These positive experimental results together with the anecdotal folklore that regular consumption of velvet antler is living with cancer-free would encourage us to test antlers in clinic settings.

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Fig. 1: Fastest growing tissue.
Fig. 2: Least cancer organ.
Fig. 3: Possible strategy for preventing neoplastic transformation.
Fig. 4: Insights into clinic use.

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Data availability

Data are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We authors thank Dr. Peter Fennessy for critically reading through the paper and helpful and constructive criticisms.

Funding

This study was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. U20A20403).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Antler Science and Product Technology, Changchun Sci-Tech University, Changchun, China

    Chunyi Li & Wenying Wang

  2. College of Veterinary Medicine, Hebei Agricultural University, Baoding, China

    Yan Li

  3. Department of Experimental Medicine, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy

    Manuel Scimeca & Gerry Melino

  4. College of Chinese Medicinal Materials, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, China

    Rui Du

  5. The Third Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University/The First People’s Hospital of Changzhou, State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Institutes for Translational Medicine, Suzhou Medical College of Soochow University, Suzhou, China

    Yufang Shi

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CL, YL, WW, GM, RD and YS conceived the project and wrote the manuscript. All of the Authors have written, corrected and approved the submitted version.

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Correspondence to Gerry Melino, Rui Du or Yufang Shi.

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GM and YS are members of the Editorial Board of Cell Death & Differentiation and of Cell Death & Disease. The authors declare no other conflict of interests.

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All the procedures carried out in the research with participation of humans were in compliance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national ethics committee and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and its subsequent changes or with comparable ethics standards. Informed voluntary consent was obtained from every participant of the study. Animal work was according to Ministry of Health regulation, respecting ethics and safety for the mice. All authorizations were obtained for specific strains and detailed experiments.

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Li, C., Li, Y., Wang, W. et al. Deer antlers: the fastest growing tissue with least cancer occurrence. Cell Death Differ 30, 2452–2461 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-023-01231-z

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