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Cellular senescence causes ageing

Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology volume 20, page 388 (2019)Cite this article

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In my view, the study published by the van Deursen group in 2011 (Baker et al.), reporting that the elimination of senescent cells can delay ageing-associated disorders, transformed this research field. First, it provided evidence for cellular senescence having a role in ageing, a hypothesis that had been around for about 50 years. But also crucially, it exposed the unexpected potential for the selective elimination of senescent cells to be of benefit for treating diseases as diverse as cancer, atherosclerosis, osteoarthritis and glaucoma — taking research on cellular senescence to new heights.

Senescence defines a stable growth arrest that is induced when cells reach the end of their replicative potential or are exposed to various stressors. This cell state was discovered serendipitously by Leonard Hayflick when culturing primary human fibroblasts to grow viruses. He stumbled upon something unexpected: primary cells could be cultured for a while but eventually stopped proliferating. This was the first suggestion that cellular senescence might be linked to ageing. But the excitement was followed by high levels of scepticism. Could cell senescence be just an artefact resulting from non-physiological cell culture conditions rather than a defined physiological cell state?

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References

Original articles

  • Baker, D. J. et al. Clearance of p16Ink4a-positive senescent cells delays ageing-associated disorders. Nature 479, 232–236 (2011)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS) and Institute of Clinical Sciences (ICS), Imperial College London, London, UK

    Jesús Gil

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  1. Jesús Gil
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Correspondence to Jesús Gil.

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Competing interests

J.G. owns equity and is a consultant for Unity Biotechnology. Unity Biotechnology funds research on senolytics in J.G.’s laboratory. J.G is a named inventor in a filed MRC patent related to senolytic therapies (PCT/GB2018/051437) that has been licensed to Unity Biotechnology.

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Gil, J. Cellular senescence causes ageing. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 20, 388 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-019-0128-0

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