Historical claims and current interpretations of replicative aging

Woodring E. Wright, Jerry W. Shay

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

303 Scopus citations

Abstract

Replicative aging is the process by which most normal human cells "count" the number of times they have divided, eventually undergoing a growth arrest termed cellular senescence. This process is dependent on the shortening of telomeres, repeated sequences at the ends of the chromosomes. The loss of telomeric sequences with each cell division eventually induces a growth arrest that has a similar phenotype to that of cells stressed by inadequate culture or other conditions. Experiments over the past several years have identified species in which replicative aging does not occur and many examples in which a failure to proliferate has been misinterpreted as replicative senescence. Insights from these studies now permit a reevaluation of much of the seemingly contradictory data concerning replicative aging. There are good theoretical reasons for believing a limited proliferative capacity contributes to declining tissue homeostasis with increasing age. Although the presence of telomere shortening provides strong circumstantial evidence that replicative aging is occurring in vivo, thus far there is only very limited direct evidence for actual physiological effects of replicative aging.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)682-688
Number of pages7
JournalNature biotechnology
Volume20
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Bioengineering
  • Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology
  • Molecular Medicine
  • Biomedical Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Historical claims and current interpretations of replicative aging'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this