senescence tagged posts

In humans and other multicellular organisms, cells multiply. This defining feature allows embryos to grow into adulthood, and enables the healing of the many bumps, bruises and scrapes along the way.

Certain factors can cause cells to abandon this characteristic and enter a zombie-like state known as senescence where they persist but no longer divide to make new cells. Our bodies can remove these senescent cells that tend to pile up as we age. The older we get, however, the less efficient our immune systems become at doing so.

“In addition to no longer growing and proliferating, the other hallmark of senescent cells is that they have this inflammatory program causing them to secrete inflammatory molecules,” said Peter Adams, Ph.D...

A team led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers has discovered a new way that cells regulate senescence, an irreversible end to cell division. The findings, published in Cell, could one day lead to new interventions for a variety of conditions associated with aging, including neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer, as well as new therapies for a collection of diseases known as ribosomopathies.

“There is great interest in reducing senescence to slow or reverse aging or aging-associated diseases...

A new study suggests that unrepaired DNA damage can increase the speed of aging. Every day, our bodies face a bombardment of UV rays, ozone, cigarette smoke, industrial chemicals and other hazards.

This exposure can lead to free-rad...

In the absence of SIRT7, a human primary cell displays multiple nucleoli. DNA was stained with DAPI (turquoise) and nucleolus was stained with anti-fibrillarin (red).

Aging is a process of gradual deterioration from exposure to time and the elements; this process begins with deterioration deep inside every cell. Researchers from Stanford University and the VA Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) have identified a protein that guards cells against senescence – aging-related problems – by protecting a particularly vulnerable set of genes. The study is published in the July 13 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

The genes that encode components of the ribosome – the protein-making machine of the cell – are abundant and constantly in use...