Molecular and Cell Biology of Replicative Senescence (original) (raw)

1. G.P. Dimri and
2. J. Campisi
3. Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

Excerpt

Normal eukaryotic cells have only a limited capacity for cell division. This property has been termed the finite replicative life span of cells, and the process that limits cell division has been termed cellular or replicative senescence.

The finite replicative life span of cells was formally described about 30 years ago (Hayflick 1965). Since then, the phenomenon has been studied by a number of investigators, primarily by studying the proliferation of cells in culture. Several important features of replicative senescence have emerged (for review, see Stanulis-Praeger 1987; Goldstein 1990; McCormick and Campisi 1991; Peacocke and Campisi 1991).

First, replicative senescence is particularly stringent in human cells, which virtually never spontaneously immortalize. This is in sharp contrast to cells derived from several rodent species, which spontaneously immortalize at low but detectable frequencies. Nonetheless, when cell cultures are monitored carefully, it is clear that cells derived from very many, if not all,...