The Circular Relationship Between Senescent Cells and Chronic Kidney Disease

Growth in the number of senescent cells that linger in tissues is one of the root causes of aging. In this context, the open access paper noted here illustrates a couple of points that are worth bearing in mind while thinking about the biochemistry of aging, the first of which is that aging is a feedback loop of damage. Cell and tissue damage generates more cell and tissue damage, which is why aging accelerates as it progresses. The same rough structure of events is found in the age-related failure of any complex machinery. The second point is that many of the mechanisms and relationships established in past research now make a lot more sense in the context of senescent cells as a driver of aging. The relationship partially outlined by the authors of this paper is an unusually compact feedback loop: senescent cells contribute to kidney dysfunction, for example through a disruption of normal tissue maintenance that produces fibrosis. Scar tissue forms in place of necessary small-scale structures, and in organs like the kidneys those structures are needed for normal function. Kidney dysfunction can in turn lead to stressful metabolic states such as hyperphosphatemia that encourage more cells to become senescent - and not just in the kidneys. It is a downward spiral, one repeated in many different ways through the aged body. Hyperphosphatemia is a pathological condition related to chronic kidney disease (CKD) and more recently found on premature aging syndromes. ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs