Senescence in the aging process

The accumulation of ‘senescent’ cells has long been proposed to act as an ageing mechanism. These cells display a radically altered transcriptome and degenerative phenotype compared with their growing counterparts. Tremendous progress has been made in recent years both in understanding the molecular mechanisms controlling entry into the senescent state and in the direct demonstration that senescent cells act as causal agents of mammalian ageing. The challenges now are to gain a better understanding of how the senescent cell phenotype varies between different individuals and tissues, discover how senescence predisposes to organismal frailty, and develop mechanisms by which the deleterious effects of senescent cells can be ameliorated.