Markers for Senescence Cells

Cells are complex machines that have many carefully regulated states. One of those states is senescence, in which the cell permanently exits the cell cycle, stops dividing, and begins to secrete a variety of molecules that, among other things, degrade surrounding extracellular matrix structures and encourage nearby cells to also become senescent or change their behavior in other ways. This senescent state seems to be a tool that originally evolved to help manage embryonic growth: senescent cells are found in embryos in places that suggest they are managing shape or tissue transitions during development. Evolution promiscuously reuses everything that emerges in biology, and at some point cellular senescence became a reaction to damage likely to cause cancer. Toxins, stress, and the various forms of cellular and molecular damage of aging can provoke cells into more readily becoming senescent, either directly or through changes in the signaling environment in tissues. Cancers result from damage to nuclear DNA, producing cells capable of unfettered replication. Senescence is a form of defense that removes potentially cancerous cells from consideration, or at least to some degree. Cancers and cellular senescence are two aspects of our biology in the midst of a long-running evolutionary struggle: the story of the lengthening of human life span in comparison to other primates is one of a moving balance between death by cancer and death by failing tissue function. Many of the most i...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs