The Naked Mole Rat has long been known for its uniquely high resistance to cancer, but researchers are only now uncovering the reason why:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12234.html
Hyaluronic Acid is a large complex molecule which requires a lot of metabolic effort from us to create. This effort is one of the reasons why its production in the body decreases sharply as we move towards adulthood, in order to reduce our metabolic overhead. The Hyaluronic Acid molecules produced by the Naked Mole Rat however are even larger than our own by a considerable margin. The large size of these HA molecules seems to cause them to accumulate more heavily in our tissues without being broken down. This may then help to insulate our cells from carcinogenic influences, and also make it harder for cancer cells to form new blood vessel pathways to feed themselves and grow into larger tumors.
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