11/2- Control of Cell Proliferation: Relationship with Aging Flashcards
What are the factors that contribute to aging?
Extrinsic/Stochastic/Environmental
- Free radical damage
- Wear and tear theories
- Error catastrophe theory
- AGE/glycosylation
Intrinsic/Programmed/Genetic
- Centralized clock theory
- Glucocorticoid theory
- Immunologic theory of aging
- Apoptosis If we do age because of a genetic program, then we should be able to induce that program in culture and examine its effects
What are theories of aging?
- Homeostatic failure: either in regulatory control systems (like the immune or endocrine systems) or generalized cellular failure (like free radial or AGE-mediate damage)
- Intrinsic: genetic program similar to Development-Antagonist Pleiotropy or telomere shortening
If we age because of a genetic program, then we should be able to induce that program in culture and examine its effects in vitro
What are some reactive molecules (internal) contributing to aging?
Glucose
- Non-enzymatic glycosylation
- AGE (advanced glycosylation end products)
Oxygen/ROS (includes free radicals)
- Peroxide
- Hydroxyl
- Peroxynitrate
Oxidation and glycation can produce damage and modify function of cellular components
What is the wear and tear theory?
- If it were true then low use would be associated with survival
- Failure (or death) would occur at a constant rate, not increasing with age.
- Even today… we see some incredibly old cars still running (but people are not cars)
Extrinsic damage can lead to DNA damage- how is the cell affected?
- Extrinsic damage can occur to cellular and/or mitochondrial DNA
- Repair enzymes work to correct the damage, but mitochondria have less active DNA repair
Single cells with _____ may ____ (increase/decrease) with age
Single cells with MitoDNA deletions may increase with age
- Mitochondria generate the most free radicals
- Single cardiac myocytes had mito DNA expanded
- Frequency of cells with mitoDNA deletion increases with age (closed circles)
What is antagonistic pleiotropy?
- Genes that are beneficial in early life up to sexual maturity carry harmful effects later in the lifespan display antagonistic pleiotropy
- A gene that facilitates calcium deposition will lead to more rapid development of strong bones (benefit) and predispose to arterial calcification later in life (harmful)
- There is NO GENETIC PRESSURE on genes that manifest their harmful effects after reproductive age (even if the gene’s only effects are negative)
What are examples of dysregulation of cell proliferation in aging?
Inappropriate cell division
- Atherosclerosis (smooth muscle cells)
- Prostatic hypertrophy
- Cancers
Inadquate cell division
- Decreased T cell response to immunologic stimuli
- Atherosclerosis (endothelial cells)
- Slow wound healing
- Balding
What is cellular senescence?
- All normal diploid cells from humans and other species will NOT divide indefinitely.
- After a reproducible number of divisions, they will cease dividing, unresponsive to any “stimulus” to divide. They will remain, senescent, quite alive for prolonged periods of time without loss of other function
Exceptions:
- Some stem cells will divide indefinitely
- Cells isolated from malignant tumors will not senesce, but will divide ad infinatum
- Normal cells have limited proliferative potential
How is senescence different from quiescence?
Neither are actively dividing, but if growth factors are added back, quiescent cells will divide (senescent will not)
What is the typical pattern of cell growth in continued culture?
- After adjustment to conditions (Phase I) cell growth usually follows a linear growth for 20-50 population doublings (phase II)
- As cells approach their maximum, their growth rate slows down
There is good correlation between survival and ____
- What is a potential confounder
There is good correlation between survival and fibroblast replicative potential
- Potential confounder is size of organism
What cell types are immortal?
(Immortal = unlimited divisions in culture)
- Cancer cells
- Germ line cells
- Certain “stem cells”, likely, but it may depend on their “sternness”
Senescent cells produce proteins in their cytoplasm that do what?
suppress replication
Found because:
- Put young nucleus in young cytoplast: rapid mitosis
- Put young nucleus in old cytoplast: slow mitosis
- Put old nucleus in old cytoplast: slow mitosis
- Put old nucleus in young cytoplast: slow mitosis
So, slow division is dominant (factors in both cytoplasm and nucleus lead to this)
What was found following fusion studies regarding the pathways leading to senescence/immortality?
There are only 4 complementation groups suggesting that there are only 4 pathways that determine senescence from immortalization;
all cancers tested to date fit in the 4 groups:
- Group A: chr 16
- Group B: chr 4, MORF4
- Group C: chr 1
- Group D: chr 7