Aiming to Remove the Senescent Cell Contribution to Aging and Age-Related Disease

As the years pass ever more of your cells fall into a state of senescence. This is a response to the age of the cell itself, its internal damage, surrounding levels of metabolic waste, the presence of cell-damaging toxins, or other signals that indicate a potentially raised risk of cancer. Senescent cells do not divide or do much else to support the tissue they are a part of, but rather emit a range of potentially harmful chemical signals that encourage other nearby cells to also enter a senescent state. Senescent cells sometimes self-destruct, or they can be removed by the immune system, but the immune system has its own process of age-related decline and this activity falters. Cellular senescence can indeed reduce the risk of cancer, but by the time there are significant numbers of senescent cells gathered in the body their presence causes all sorts of harm: they degrade tissue function, increase levels of chronic inflammation, and can even eventually raise the risk of cancer due to their generally bad behavior. Cellular senescence is one of the more exciting areas of the biochemistry of aging, because the research community is very close to being able to produce treatments for the targeted, safe removal of senescent cells. Early animal studies have provided initial evidence that doing so does produce improvements in health and longevity, as expected. Further studies in rodents presently in progress should firmly demonstrate that healthy, normal animals benefit from the re...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs