Senescent Cells Contribute to the Degeneration of the Retinal Vasculature

Senescent cells accumulate with age throughout the body. While their numbers remain a small fraction of all cells in a tissue, even in late life, senescent cells produce an outsized harm to tissue structure and function via a continual, disruptive, pro-growth, pro-inflammatory signaling, the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Researchers have demonstrated, in animal models, that senescent cells directly contribute to the onset and progression of many distinct age-related conditions. Further, it has been shown in animal models that clearing senescent cells throughout the body can rapidly reverse pathology in these conditions. Degeneration of the vasculature is involved in retinopathies, forms of degenerative blindness. In today's open access review, researchers outline what is known of the way in which senescent cells contribute to the degenerative aging of the retina. That senescent cells are involved offers the prospect of using senolytic therapies to selectively remove these cells and their contribution to the disease state. Sadly, few groups are making use of existing low-cost senolytic small molecules in human clinical trials, so while treatments such as the dasatinib and quercetin combination are known to clear senescent cells in humans to about the same degree as in mice, they are not yet widely used. Scores of age-related conditions might be treated or slowed via this approach, but the focus of the industry is on the production and regulatory appr...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs