Senescent Cells Appear Involved in Graft-Versus-Host Disease

Now that increasing attention is given to senescent cells in the biology of aging, their involvement in a wide range of conditions has been uncovered. The transient creation of senescent cells is a part of wound healing, a process that is harmed by the growing burden of lingering senescent cells that occurs with advancing age, and the inability of the aged immune system to remove these cells in a timely fashion. Given the role in wound healing, is perhaps not surprising to find senescent cells involved in graft-versus-host disease following surgical transplantation of tissue. Senolytic therapies may prove to be useful here, as they have in animal studies of many other conditions. Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a life-threatening systemic complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) characterized by dysregulation of T cell and B cell activation and function, scleroderma-like features, and multi-organ pathology. The treatment of cGVHD is limited to the management of symptoms and long-term use of immunosuppressive therapy, which underscores the need for developing novel treatment approaches. Notably, there is a striking similarity between cytokines/chemokines responsible for multi-organ damage in cGVHD and pro-inflammatory factors, immune modulators, and growth factors secreted by senescent cells upon the acquisition of senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). In this pilot study, we questioned the involvement of senesce...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs