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Progeria is another example of a disease that may be related to cell senescence. The disease is thought to be caused by mutations in the DNA damage response, telomere shortening, or a combination of the two. [82] Progeroid syndromes are all examples of aging diseases where cell senescence appears to be implicated.
Extending telomeres can allow cells to divide more and increase the risk of uncontrolled cell growth and cancer development. [24] A study conducted by Johns Hopkins University challenged the idea that long telomeres prevent aging. Rather than protecting cells from aging, long telomeres help cells with age-related mutations last longer. [13]
Senescence (/ s ɪ ˈ n ɛ s ə n s /) or biological aging is the gradual deterioration of functional characteristics in living organisms. Whole organism senescence involves an increase in death rates or a decrease in fecundity with increasing age, at least in the later part of an organism's life cycle.
Senescence can be induced by several factors, including telomere shortening, [37] DNA damage [38] and stress. Since the immune system is programmed to seek out and eliminate senescent cells, [39] it might be that senescence is one way for the body to rid itself of cells damaged beyond repair. The links between cell senescence and aging are several:
Aging of the immune system is a controversial phenomenon. Senescence refers to replicative senescence from cell biology , which describes the condition when the upper limit of cell divisions ( Hayflick limit ) has been exceeded, and such cells commit apoptosis or lose their functional properties.
The disposable soma theory of aging posits that there is a trade-off in resource allocation between somatic maintenance and reproductive investment.Too low an investment in self-repair would be evolutionarily unsound, as the organism would likely die before reproductive age.
Aplastic Anemia is often an adverse effect of certain medications [17] but as such it cannot really be considered as evidence against the stem cell theory of aging. The cellularity of the bone marrow does decrease with age and can be usually calculated by the formula 100-age, and this seems consistent with a stem cell theory of aging. [18]
A second study led by Jan van Deursen in collaboration with a team of collaborators at the Mayo Clinic and Groningen University, provided the first direct in vivo evidence that cellular senescence causes signs of aging by eliminating senescent cells from progeroid mice by introducing a drug-inducible suicide gene and then treating the mice with ...