Research shows that night shift increases the risk of carcinogenesis by damaging cancer-related genes.
Researchers, including Washington State University in the United States, carried out overtime simulations in which 14 healthy adults were housed in a sleep lab for a week. Half of the participants worked at night and half worked during the day for comparison. After completing the simulation, the participant’s blood was collected.
The researchers looked at the white blood cells in the blood sample. The rhythm of cancer-related genes in people who work overtime was different from those who worked during the day. In particular, the gene that repairs DNA damage was a problem. During the daytime workers, the gene showed a distinct rhythm, but the overtime workers lost the rhythm due to damage.
The blood cells of the night shift workers were also vulnerable to external stimuli. When the researchers irradiated a blood sample with radiation, they found that the white blood cells of the night shift workers had more DNA damage. This means that overtime workers may be more susceptible to exposure to the same cancer risk.
The researchers explained that “night shift impairs the ability to repair DNA and interferes with the body’s anti-cancer action.” The researchers plan to expand the experiment with real workers who constantly work overtime. This is to assess how high the risk of carcinogenesis is actually for workers who have accumulated DNA damage from working overtime over the years.
The International Cancer Institute (IARC) under the World Health Organization (WHO) has listed night shift as a group 2 (Group 2A) carcinogen alongside DDT, a pesticide component.
This study (Night shift schedule causes circadian dysregulation of DNA repair genes and elevated DNA damage in humans) was published in the Journal of Pineal Research.
Reporter Lee Yong-jae [email protected]
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