Senescent cells may be good when it comes to a bad injury

Medical Xpress / Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University / Aging Cell ^ | Sept. 29, 2020 | Xiaogang Chu et al

[ConservativeMind]

It's called senescence, when stressed cells can no longer divide to make new cells, and it's considered a factor in aging and in some diseases. Now scientists have some of the first evidence that at a younger age at least, senescent cells show up quickly after a major injury and are protective.

Scientists report that shortly after hemorrhagic shock occurs, a population of liver cells quickly become senescent.

"If the cells switch immediately to a senescent state, they may help prevent organ failure," says Dr. Raju.

"The results suggest that the induction of acute senescence may be a necessary process in hemorrhagic shock," they write. Death of the senescent cells appears to exacerbate the tissue injury resulting from blood loss, and the drugs that target those cells also have off-target effects that are problematic with an injury as opposed to age-related senescence.

This is the first evidence that cellular senescence can develop within a few hours after tissue injury, that hemorrhagic injury can make that happen and that the senescent cells that emerge are not detrimental in this scenario.

This "hunkered down" state may enable the liver cells to survive until the blood, oxygen and nutrient deficit passes, he says, but what fraction of cells switch to this hunkered mode remain unknown.

Other than the fact that senescence can prevent cells from becoming rapidly dividing cancer cells, it is widely considered a detriment to health in aging. The scientists suspected the liver cells showing signs of senescence would be bad too, and that killing them might help patients, as it appears to do in aging, Raju says. But instead they found senescence is not bad and may actually be good in the aftermath of injury. In fact, the cells can even heal in this state.

[ConservativeMind]

Senescent cells are problematic for older people and eliminating them has been shown to help one’s health. However, this is the first and only study reference I’ve come across that shows a serious issue with getting rid of these cells in a certain scenario. The write up describes how the young mice given senolytics (these remove senescent cells) died, as a result, when their now senescent cells were killed off.

[ConservativeMind]

The “Take Charge Of Your Health” Ping List

This potentially high volume ping list is for health articles and studies which describe something you or your doctor, when informed, may be able to immediately implement for your benefit.

Now keeping a new list (“Common/Top Issues”) for conditions expected to only concern at least 1% of the population. Ask to be on either the “Common/Top Issues” or “Everything” list.

Please email or private message me if you want on or off of a list and of which list you desire.