Targeting Cellular Senescence as a Basis for Treating Osteoporosis

Senescent cells accumulate with age, causing tissue dysfunction throughout the body via their inflammatory secretions. One of those dysfunctions is the age-related imbalance in bone remodeling, favoring the osteoclasts that break down bone tissue at the expense of the osteoblasts that rebuild it. The result is osteoporosis, the characteristic loss of bone mass and resilience that takes place with age. It has been clear for some years now that clearing senescent cells in aged individuals is a potential basis for the treatment of osteoporosis, producing a reversal of the condition in animal models treated in this way. This outcome is accompanied by a range of supporting evidence, as discussed here. Osteoporosis is a frequent age-related disease that results from a dysregulation of the activities of osteoclasts and osteoblasts. As in other age-related diseases, research in the last decade has clearly provided evidence for a role of senescence in age-related osteoporosis. In pioneering work the expression of the senescent cell biomarker p16Ink4 was shown to increase in bone-derived B cells, T cells, myeloid cells, osteoprogenitors, osteoblasts, and osteocytes from young versus old male and female mice. Moreover, osteocytes and myeloid cells were identified as the cell populations with the most pronounced upregulation of senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) factors within the bone environment. Accumulation of senescent cells in the context of age-relate...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs