Aging without inflammaging: lesson from Spalax

摘要

Senescent cells are unable to divide and, thus, they possess a barrier for transmission of mutations for the next generations of cells. However, senescent cells remain alive and reportedly accumulate in tissues with age and, noteworthy, exhibit increased secretion of inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and growth factors (senescent secretome or senescent-associated secretory phenotype, SASP). SASP appears to be beneficial early in life by contributing to embryonic development, wound healing and suppression of malignancy, but deleterious for aging organisms promoting sterile inflammation and leading to age-related disorders, including cancer. This is consistent with the theory of antagonistic pleiotropy of aging, which implies the contribution of pleiotropic genes that have evolved to maintain fitness in youth when selection is strong, but they become harmful when selection weakens with age and reproductive period is over (Reviewed in [ ]).