Senescent Cells Help To Heal Damaged Tissues According to a recent study from the University of California, San Francisco, not all senescent cells are detrimental 'zombies' that need to be eliminated to avoid age-related diseases. Instead, some of them are embedded in young, healthy tissues and pro
Senescent cells are distinct in that they eventually stop multiplying but do not die off as expected.University of California, San Francisco
Scientists have now seen these cells in action in lung tissue as well as other organs that serve as barriers in the body, such as the small intestine, colon, and skin. When they employed drugs known as senolytics to eliminate these cells, lung tissue damage healed more slowly. Using senolytics, which target and destroy “zombie cells,” researchers discovered that removing senescent cells from animals prevented or reduced age-related disease and increased the animals’ lifespan. Following that, there was a surge of activity in research laboratories and pharmaceutical companies focused on discovering and refining more potent versions of these drugs.
To create a more powerful tool for their studies, postdoctoral scholar Nabora Reyes de Barboza, Ph.D. and colleagues improved on a common technique of fusing a relevant gene—in this case, the p16 gene, which is overly active in senescent cells—with green fluorescent protein as a marker that can reveal the location of the cells under ultraviolet light.
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