What Are Your Centrosomes? Uncovering the Essential Role of Centrosome Function in Your Health, Aging and Disease
If you've never heard the word "centrosome" before, you're certainly not alone.
Centrosomes are part of your cells that are often overlooked outside the field of scientific research and medicine. However, the latest research shows that when it comes to aging, we should sit up and pay closer attention to our centrosomes.
Just as a project manager oversees the entire affairs of a construction site and manages the project’s human, material, and financial resources, so does the centrosome, which has a similar role in orchestrating numerous processes within a human cell. The centrosome is a central player in organizing a cell’s shape and structure, overseeing how cellular components move to their required destinations, and directing how the cell divides to give birth to a new cell.
In recent years it has become clear that defects in the centrosome are linked to cancer and many age-related diseases.
Let's take a closer look at the mighty centrosome and what you can do to protect yours from dysfunction.
Key Takeaways
Centrosomes play an essential role in cellular form, structure, signaling, and in the regulation of the life cycle of the cell.
Irregularly formed or additional centrosomes contribute to abnormal cell division.
Centrosome dysfunction can lead to various conditions such as cancer and diseases of aging, emphasizing its importance for maintaining cellular health and overall wellbeing.
You can support centrosome health with a diet rich in antioxidants, vitamins and other key nutrients shown to protect your cells against damage.
The Centrosome: Structure and Components
Centrosomes are organelles - molecular complexes responsible for specific tasks in cells - located close to the nucleus.
Centrosomes and their components called centrioles were first discovered at the end of the nineteenth century by a team of biologists, including Edouard Van Beneden, as well as Theodor Boveri and Walther Flemming. It was a big discovery and their work began to lay the foundation for the chromosomal theory of heredity.
Chromosomal heredity is the theory that genes are found in specific spots on chromosomes. What's more, chromosomal behavior explains why some physical traits are inherited in one generation but skip the next generation and so forth. For instance, why you have your father's hands and your brother got his nose.
Scientist Thomas Hunt Morgan provided the first strong confirmation of the chromosome theory with his work in fruit flies. He discovered a genetic mutation that affected the fly's eye color. In fact, he found that this genetic mutation was inherited differently by male and female flies and was among the first to conclude that the gene for eye color must be located on the X chromosome.
Back to centrosomes...
Centrosomes function primarily as microtubule organizing centers (MTOC). Microtubules are the largest part of the cytoskeleton of the cell; a network of fibers that support the cell, giving it form and structure, much like our human skeleton.
It's in the MTOC that microtubules are constructed and organized to turn into tubular structures. As the director of operations for the microtubules, centrosomes play a pivotal role in cell cycle regulation, including the centrosome cycle which changes in tandem with the four phases of the cell cycle.
The Centriole and Pericentriolar Material
Each centrosome consists of two main parts called centrioles. These contain barrel-shaped clusters of microtubules arranged at right angles to each other. Centrioles play a crucial role in centrosome assembly and function, serving as the backbone for the creation and organization of the microtubules.
Surrounding the centrioles are a matrix of multiple proteins called the pericentriolar material (PCM) whose job is to nucleate (trigger) the formation of microtubules. PCM is also important for centriole maintenance and stability, and for distributing components within the cell.
There's only one centrosome in a cell in the first (G1) phase of the cell cycle, but a second centrosome grows out of the first in the second – synthesis or S - phase of the cell cycle, in preparation for cell division, also known as mitosis.
Centrosomes are present in a wide variety of cell types, from simple organisms right up to human cells. Their diverse roles in cell biology are critical to maintaining cell shape and ensuring the correct distribution of cellular components during mitosis.
Key Functions of Centrosomes
Centrosomes have multiple functions, from organizing microtubules to coordinating cellular processes and regulating cell life phases, such as cell division and cilia/flagella formation. Cilia and flagella are hair-like structures that allow cells to move.
Centrosomes also play a crucial role via the microtubules in providing transportation tracks on which two families of proteins - called molecular motors or motor proteins - transport cellular components from one part of a cell to another. We can think of it like a railway track on which a train transports cargo.
In the following subsections, we will explore some of the key functions of centrosomes in more detail.
Microtubule Organization: Promotes Cell Function
Centrosomes stimulate microtubule formation, determining the transportation tracks for cellular components and playing a crucial role in cell structure and function.
Throughout the cell cycle, centrosomes are involved in the organization of microtubules, allowing cells to maintain their shape and integrity during various cellular processes.
Cell Cycle Regulation: How Your Cells Stay Healthy
Centrosomes play a significant role in cell cycle progression, with their restructuring facilitated by specific enzymes (kinases) during mitosis. In proliferating cells, centrosomes begin division prior to the S phase, with newly formed centrosomes taking part in the arrangement of the mitotic spindles.
Post-mitotic cells feature two types of centrioles - a mature one (mother) and an immature one (daughter). Such mature cells are characterized by the presence of these centrioles. The centrosomes’ involvement in cell cycle regulation ensures proper cellular development and coordination of various cellular processes, emphasizing their importance in maintaining cellular health.
Cilia and Flagella Formation: How Cells Move and Communicate
Centrioles are essential for the formation of cilia and flagella, which are important for cell motility (movement) and signaling. Since centrosomes play a key role in the formation of the microtubule cytoskeleton, they're indispensable for the structure and function of cilia and flagella.
In epithelial cells, which line the blood vessels and outer surface of organs, centrioles have multiple roles, including:
- Assembling and constructing motile cilia after securing at the cell membrane
Playing a crucial role in cilia and flagella formation
Contributing to various cellular processes
Maintaining cellular health by ensuring proper centrosome function
What's more, when cells divide centrosomes play another important role. However, centrosome and centriole age affect their ability to respond to signaling cues, which may affect stem cell proliferation. While this is a complex process, suffice it to say that when cells divide, the daughter cell usually inherits the older centriole, leading to differences in centriole performance and cellular behavior.
These differences can result in abnormal cell function and the signs and symptoms of aging. This is also where your diet, lifestyle, and supplement regimen can make a big difference in how you age.
Centrosome Dysfunction and Disease: When Healthy Cells Get Old
Centrosome dysfunction has been linked to various disorders, such as cancer, ciliopathy (human genetic disease associated with mutations which result in abnormal formation or function of cilia) - and what we're more familiar with- age-related diseases. This highlights the importance of proper centrosome function in maintaining cellular health. Centrosome amplification, a recurrent feature observed in tumor cells, is one example of centrosome dysfunction that can lead to cancer.
Centrosomes also have an important role in the immune system. When immune cells detect an invader, they migrate to the lymph nodes to present their findings to killer cells, or T cells. In fact, centrosomes direct the movement of T cells to get them to the threat as rapidly as possible and they do it by making more centrosomes.
In this section, we will explore the implications of centrosome dysfunction in disease development and the ways to target centrosome abnormalities. By understanding the link between centrosome dysfunction and disease, we can appreciate the importance of maintaining proper centrosome function and healthy cells.
Centrosome Amplification and Cancer
A second centrosome is created out of the first to prepare for cell division but if this process is amplified so that more are produced, this will create major cellular disruption causing chromosome irregularities that can lead to cancer. In fact, such irregularities are seen in more than 90 percent of solid tumors in humans.
Andrew Holland, assistant professor of molecular biology and genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine explains more, saying, "Human cancers usually develop over decades. Some initial error - extra centrosomes, in this case - weakens the faithfulness with which chromosomes are duplicated and passed on to daughter cells. Then, every cell division is a chance for a cancer-promoting mutation to occur. Eventually, enough of these accumulate in a given tissue, and a tumor forms."
With centrosome amplification, the resulting multipolar spindles often lead to mitotic failure and cell death, further contributing to cancer. Centrosome abnormalities have also been identified as a potential cause for the loss of cell and tissue architecture seen in cancer due to altered centrosome function in microtubule nucleation and organization.
Centrosome abnormalities are common in solid tumors and in many blood cancers. For instance, amplified centrosomes are seen in 80 percent of invasive breast tumors and in 72 percent of patients with B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
By understanding the link between centrosome amplification and cancer, researchers can develop novel approaches to prevent and treat cancer arising from centrosome dysfunction.
Ciliopathies: The Trigger for Lung Disease, Hearing Loss and More
Centrosome dysfunction can also result in ciliopathies, or a group of disorders that can result in abnormal cilia function. Cillopathies have been associated with a variety of health issues, including:
- Respiratory difficulties
Hearing impairment
Visual disturbances
Kidney and liver ailments
While many ciliopathies are genetic in nature, scientists believe that understanding the molecular mechanisms behind centrosome dysfunction in ciliopathies may lead to new strategies to improve cellular health and combat aging.
Age-Related Diseases Caused by Centrosome Defects
According to Qi Wu, Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei China, and colleagues (2020), "increasing evidence has revealed a relationship between CD (centrosome dysfunction) and senescence, suggesting that the centrosome could play a role in aging directly or indirectly."
Centrosome defects contribute to senescence - declining cellular function that's associated with aging. Cellular senescence is an important topic we've written about before due to its impact on brain health and memory function as you age. In fact, senescent cells are linked to memory loss and illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease.
When it comes to centrosomes, structural or numerical abnormalities can trigger a range of disruptions to cellular metabolism and function such as errors in mitosis, DNA and chromosome instability, cellular senescence and cell death, that promote disease and accelerate aging of your body.
In fact, one common result of centrosome dysfunction is inflammation. As we've written about repeatedly over the years, inflammation plays a critical role in age-related diseases, so much so that it has its own term - "inflammaging." What's more, inflammation can be caused by a number of factors, including gum disease, as we've written about in the past.
Centrosome dysfunction has been found to promote inflammatory processes that drive cellular senescence and affect the health of all-important cellular telomeres.
Centrosomes Can Either Help or Hurt Telomeres
You may recall that telomeres are the protective endcaps at the end of chromosomes which protect genetic material and whose length is a good measure of longevity. We've written before about how damage to telomeres causes them to shorten and is linked to cellular senescence as well as aging.
In addition, shortening of telomeres may be directly responsible for various age-related diseases from Alzheimer's and heart disease to many cancers. Well, new research suggests that the role of centrosomes in producing accurate duplication of chromosomes in cellular replication may end up being seen as just as important or even more so than telomeres. That bears repeating. While the area of study surrounding centrosomes is very new, they could end up being even more important to your health and longevity than your telomeres!
And centrosomes are just the beginning. While centrosomes play a vital role in cell division, there are alternative mechanisms for spindle assembly and cell division that do not rely on centrosomes.
These alternative mechanisms broaden our perspective on cell division and underscore the complexity of cellular processes beyond centrosome involvement, as highlighted in research in the journal Recent Trends Cell Biol Research. We're sure there's more to come here. We're going to be watching closely as new findings emerge from the top anti-aging laboratories around the globe. We believe that, when it comes to aging, cells hold the key to slowing down the clock and living your healthiest life for years to come. So, it begs the question...
How Do You Keep Your Centrosomes Healthy?
Not surprisingly, researchers haven't yet come up with a specific centrosome health checklist. But what we do know is that by keeping your cells healthy, you will help to keep your centrosomes healthy. So, until more is known about specific ways to support centrosome health, we suggest you take steps to limit the things we know can damage cells. These include inflammation, toxins, nutrient deficiency, stress, lack of exercise, too much iron, and not enough sleep.
Instead, focus on eating an anti-inflammatory diet which is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, fish and healthy oils, such as olive oil or coconut oil. Ensure you get regular exercise, healthy sleep and manage your stress levels. Supplements that block oxidative stress, such as antioxidants, enzymes and omega-3's, are also critical, especially as you age.
And because centrosomes are so closely related to telomere health, we believe that you need to know about a powerful blend of organic grapevine and olive leaf extract. It has an extremely high antioxidant polyphenol profile that can provide the protection you need for your telomere and centrosome good health. That's because this extract has been shown in human clinical study to slow down the cellular aging process and protect telomere length.
How well does it work? It can shave a whopping eight years off your cellular age according to the latest clinical studies. Eight whole years! It's called Telos95 and it's the foundation of Genesis, a breakthrough nutritional formula designed to support healthy longevity and an active lifestyle on the cellular level-- where it really matters.
Summary
Throughout this article we have explored the fascinating world of centrosomes, uncovering their essential structures, functions, and implications in various diseases. From their roles in cell division and microtubule organization to their significance in different cell types, centrosomes have proven to be crucial players in cell biology and the fight against the aging process.
As we continue to unravel the mysteries surrounding these cellular powerhouses, we gain a deeper understanding of the intricate processes that govern the life of a cell. With this knowledge, we can better appreciate the importance of maintaining proper centrosome function. And, while science strives to develop novel therapeutic strategies to combat diseases arising from centrosome dysfunction, we will continue to focus on solving the problem of aging at the cellular level -- where it begins-- using natural strategies founded in research. These begin with a healthy lifestyle and end with the right nutritional formulas from Green Valley Natural Solutions which are clinically proven to strengthen your cells and improve your overall health from the inside out.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are centrosomes?
Centrosomes are organelles located near the nucleus which play a vital role in cell division, microtubule assembly and regulation of the cell cycle. They contain structures called centrioles.
What are the main functions of the centrosome?
The centrosome is centrally involved in many processes including cytoskeleton formation, organizing microtubules, formation of cilia and flagella, cell motility, regulation of the cell cycle, and successful cell division.
What are important facts about the centrosome?
Centrosomes are essential to cell division, stimulating the changes in cell shape and membrane, and organizing microtubules for the distribution of centrosomes in each daughter cell. They are the main microtubule-organizing centers playing important roles in the development of most animal species.
How does centrosome dysfunction contribute to cancer?
Centrosome dysfunction can cause faulty segregation of chromosomes, growth abnormalities, and the loss of specialized cell features, contributing to cancer development. These effects can be seen in a variety of cancers, including breast, ovarian, and colorectal cancer. Studies have shown that centrosome dysfunction is a key factor in the development of cancer cells in these tissues.
Can centrosome dysfunction cause premature aging?
Evidence is mounting that centrosome dysfunction contributes to accelerated aging. Structural and numerical defects can lead to a variety of cellular problems, including inflammatory processes, that promote disease and accelerate aging.
How can you promote the health of centrosomes?
We suggest you focus on eating an anti-inflammatory diet which is rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean meats, fish and healthy oils, such as olive oil or coconut oil. Ensure you get regular exercise, healthy sleep and manage your stress levels. Supplements that block oxidative stress, such as antioxidants, enzymes and omega-3's are also critical, especially as you age. For example, Genesis, a breakthrough nutritional formula from Green Valley Natural Solutions contains a potent antioxidant blend shown in human clinical study to slow down the cellular aging process.
Newly discovered process brings immune cells up to speed. University of Bonn https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/news/224-2022
Wu et al 2020 Centrosome dysfunction: a link between senescence and tumor immunity Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7327052/
Wu et al 2021 Centrosome-phagy: implications for human diseases Cell and Bioscience https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7934278/
