Cellular senescence entails an irreversible growth arrest that evolved in part to prevent cancer. Paradoxically, senescent cells secrete proinflammatory and growth-stimulatory molecules, termed the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), which is correlated with cancer cell proliferation in culture and xenograft models. However, at what tumor stage and how senescence and the SASP act on endogenous tumor growth is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurodegeneration is a major age-related pathology. Cognitive decline is characteristic of patients with Alzheimer's and related dementias and cancer patients after chemo- or radio-therapies. A recently emerged driver of these and other age-related pathologies is cellular senescence, a cell fate that entails a permanent cell cycle arrest and pro-inflammatory senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFERCC1 (excision repair cross complementing-group 1) is a mammalian endonuclease that incises the damaged strand of DNA during nucleotide excision repair and interstrand cross-link repair. Ercc1 mice, carrying one null and one hypomorphic Ercc1 allele, have been widely used to study aging due to accelerated aging phenotypes in numerous organs and their shortened lifespan. Ercc1 mice display combined features of human progeroid and cancer-prone syndromes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSome studies show eliminating senescent cells rejuvenate aged mice and attenuate deleterious effects of chemotherapy. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether senescence affects immune cell function. We provide evidence that exposure of mice to ionizing radiation (IR) promotes the senescent-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) and expression of p16 in splenic cell populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSenescent cells secrete diverse array of proteins. One group of proteins, damage-associated molecular pattern (DAMP) proteins exhibit relocalization from inside to outside the cell. High Mobility Group Box 1 protein (HMGB1) is the founding DAMP member.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProcesses that have been linked to aging and cancer include an inflammatory milieu driven by senescent cells. Senescent cells lose the ability to divide, essentially irreversibly, and secrete numerous proteases, cytokines and growth factors, termed the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Senescent cells that lack p53 tumor suppressor function show an exaggerated SASP, suggesting the SASP is negatively controlled by p53.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFXPG is a structure-specific endonuclease required for nucleotide excision repair, and incision-defective XPG mutations cause the skin cancer-prone syndrome xeroderma pigmentosum. Truncating mutations instead cause the neurodevelopmental progeroid disorder Cockayne syndrome, but little is known about how XPG loss results in this devastating disease. We identify XPG as a partner of BRCA1 and BRCA2 in maintaining genomic stability through homologous recombination (HRR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe TOR (target of rapamycin) kinase limits longevity by poorly understood mechanisms. Rapamycin suppresses the mammalian TORC1 complex, which regulates translation, and extends lifespan in diverse species, including mice. We show that rapamycin selectively blunts the pro-inflammatory phenotype of senescent cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCellular senescence irreversibly arrests proliferation in response to potentially oncogenic stress. Senescent cells also secrete inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, which promote age-associated inflammation and pathology. HMGB1 (high mobility group box 1) modulates gene expression in the nucleus, but certain immune cells secrete HMGB1 as an extracellular Alarmin to signal tissue damage.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExposure of MCF-7 breast tumor cells or HCT-116 colon carcinoma cells to clinically relevant concentrations of doxorubicin (Adriamycin; Farmitalia Research Laboratories, Milan, Italy) or camptothecin results in both autophagy and senescence. To determine whether autophagy is required for chemotherapy-induced senescence, reactive oxygen generation induced by Adriamycin was suppressed by N-acetyl cysteine and glutathione, and the induction of ataxia telangiectasia mutated, p53, and p21 was modulated pharmacologically and/or genetically. In all cases, autophagy and senescence were collaterally suppressed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochem Biophys Res Commun
September 2012
Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) hold promise for the treatment of many human pathologies. For example, hESCs and the neuronal stem cells (NSCs) and neurons derived from them have significant potential as transplantation therapies for a variety of neurodegenerative diseases. Two concerns about the use of hESCs and their differentiated derivatives are their ability to function and their ability to resist neoplastic transformation in response to stresses that inevitably arise during their preparation for transplantation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFXPG is a structure-specific endonuclease required for nucleotide excision repair (NER). XPG incision defects result in the cancer-prone syndrome xeroderma pigmentosum, whereas truncating mutations of XPG cause the severe postnatal progeroid developmental disorder Cockayne syndrome. We show that XPG interacts directly with WRN protein, which is defective in the premature aging disorder Werner syndrome, and that the two proteins undergo similar subnuclear redistribution in S phase and colocalize in nuclear foci.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDNA damage can induce a tumor suppressive response termed cellular senescence. Damaged senescent cells permanently arrest growth, secrete inflammatory cytokines and other proteins and harbor persistent nuclear foci that contain DNA damage response (DDR) proteins. To understand how persistent damage foci differ from transient foci that mark repairable DNA lesions, we identify sequential events that differentiate transient foci from persistent foci, which we term 'DNA segments with chromatin alterations reinforcing senescence' (DNA-SCARS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCellular senescence, which is associated with aging, is a process by which cells enter a state of permanent cell cycle arrest, therefore constituting a potent tumor suppressive mechanism. Recent studies show that, despite the beneficial effects of cellular senescence, senescent cells can also exert harmful effects on the tissue microenvironment. The most significant of these effects is the acquisition of a senescent-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), which entails a striking increase in the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCellular senescence suppresses cancer by stably arresting the proliferation of damaged cells. Paradoxically, senescent cells also secrete factors that alter tissue microenvironments. The pathways regulating this secretion are unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTelomeres are maintained by three DNA-binding proteins (telomeric repeat binding factor 1 [TRF1], TRF2, and protector of telomeres 1 [POT1]) and several associated factors. One factor, TRF1-interacting protein 2 (TIN2), binds TRF1 and TRF2 directly and POT1 indirectly. Along with two other proteins, TPP1 and hRap1, these form a soluble complex that may be the core telomere maintenance complex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFemales with germline mutations in BRCA1 are predisposed to develop breast and ovarian cancers. A previous report indicated that BRCA1 colocalizes with and is necessary for the correct localization of XIST, a noncoding RNA that coats the inactive X chromosome (Xi) to mediate formation of facultative heterochromatin. A model emerged from this study suggesting that loss of BRCA1 in female cells could reactivate genes on the Xi through loss of the XIST RNA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe BLM helicase, a deficiency that markedly increases cancer incidence in humans, is required for optimal repair during DNA replication. We show that BLM rapidly moves from PML nuclear bodies to damaged replication forks, returning to PML bodies several hours later, owing to activities of the DNA damage response kinases ATR and ATM, respectively. Immunofluorescence and cellular fractionation demonstrate that BLM partitions to different sub-cellular compartments after replication stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTelomeres are protective structures at chromosome ends and are crucial for genomic stability. Mammalian TRF1 and TRF2 bind the double-stranded telomeric repeat sequence and in turn are bound by TIN2, TANK1, TANK2, and hRAP1. TRF1 is a negative regulator of telomere length in telomerase-positive cells, whereas TRF2 is important for telomere capping.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTelomerase inhibition may be a novel anti-cancer strategy that can be used in combination with conventional therapies, such as DNA damaging agents. There are conflicting reports as to whether and to what extent telomerase and telomere length influence the sensitivity of cells to genotoxins. To understand the relationship between telomere length, telomerase expression, and sensitivity to genotoxic stress, we expressed the catalytic subunit of telomerase, hTERT, in human fibroblasts having different telomere lengths.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBloom syndrome (BS) is a hereditary disorder characterized by pre- and postnatal growth retardation, genomic instability, and cancer. BLM, the gene defective in BS, encodes a DNA helicase thought to participate in genomic maintenance. We show that BS human fibroblasts undergo extensive apoptosis after DNA damage specifically when DNA replication forks are stalled.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLoss of heterozygosity on human chromosome 3p21.3 is a frequent occurrence in many tumor types. In a previous study, our laboratory demonstrated that an 80-kb P1 clone from chromosome 3 suppresses the tumorigenicity of the mouse fibrosarcoma cell line A9.
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