Abstract
Sencescence is an essential mechanism to protect from excessive tissue proliferation. After about 50 population doublings, somatic cells enter irreversible cell cycle arrest. During cell division, the ends of chromosomes (telomeres) cannot be fully reduplicated and, in the absence of a mechanism for maintaining telomere length, erode 50–100 bases per cell division. The telomere shortening with every cell division reflects the history of population doublings. In addition, chromosome shortening may be caused by single strand breaks derived from oxidative stress (accumulation of reactive oxygen metabolites). Senescence is overcome in cancer cells.
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Notes
- 1.
Germ line cells and stem cells typically have active Telomerase.
References
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Weber, G. (2015). Induction of Senescence. In: Molecular Therapies of Cancer. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13278-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13278-5_6
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