Cellular senescence and cancer and ageing Flashcards
who first described cellular senescence?
Hayflick, he observed that cultured fibroblasts cells could only proliferate for a set amount of times- this was called the hayflick limit. These cells remained viable but were unable to proliferate anymore
why did cellular senescence evolve?
as an anti cancer mechanism
what did multicellular organisms bring with them the need for?
renewable tissues which required proliferating cells which give rise to cancers. Therefore they needed anti cancer mechanisms
for what period of time do tumour suppressors need to be beneficial?
only for the reproductive lifespan of animals because after this point the deleterious effects will not be exposed to selection
what is the theory of antagonistic pleiotropy
the idea that genes and mechanisms that pose a selective advantage prior to reproduction may have antagonistic phenotypyes after this point
what type of cells does senescence occur in? why?
mitotic because this is where cancer can rise
what is the difference betweenn sen cells and quiescent cells?
quiescent cells can resume proliferation in response to appropriate signals, including the need for tissue repair or regeneration. sen cells are also resistant to apoptosis signals. they acquire widespread changes in gene expression
at what stage to sen cells normally arrest? when else can they?
G1 but sometimes they can at G2 or even S phase
generally, how do sen cells stop proliferating?
cell cycle inhibitors and their pathways are upregulated
can all sen cells acquire resistance to apoptosis? what cell type doesn’t?
no- human endothelial cells do not
what is thought to determine whether a cell undergoes sensencence or apoptosis?
cell type or type of stress
when a cell comes into stress or undergoes damage, what are the two options that it has?
sensence or apoptosis
what regulator do the apoptosis and sen pathways have in common?
p53
is it known how sen cells are resistant to apoptosis and what are the theories?
no but it is thought they might lose the proteins that are involved in the apoptic execution
what are the two main pathways involved in sen?
p53/p21 and p16/pRB
what do p21 and p16 do?
They ensure that pRB is kept active in its hypophosphorylated state
what type of genes are repressed in the sen cells?
replication-depdendent, c-FOS, cyclin A, cyclin B
what is one of the main transcription factors that is inhibited by pRB? what type of genes does this component normally activate?
E2F- it is inactivated and itnormaly encodes genes involved in cell cycle progression
name 6 markers of sen cells
- lack of DNA rep (but doesn’t differentiate form quiescent cells)
- beta galactosidase
- p16 (in most but not all)
- sen-associated DNA-damage foci
- telomere induced foci
- heterochromatin-associated histone modifications
what are the 4 main causes of sen?
- strogn mitogenic signals
- chromatin perturbations and other non genetics stresses
- non-telomeric DNA dmage
- dysfunctional telomeres
what is the sequence of telomere repeats?
TTAGGG +protein cap
what is the role of telomeres?
to prevent ends of chromosomes being mistaken for double strand breaks
what is the general structure of the end of a teller?
a t-loop
why do telomeres shorten?
DNA polymerases cannot completely replicate DNA ends - they lose 50-200 bps each S phase
how many bps are lost every S phase?
50-200
how many critically short telomeres are required to induce cellular sensencen?
just one
what do short telomeres trigger?
the DNA damage response- prolonged not transient
what can telomerase not prevent?
sen from telomere-indepdendent sen
give some evidence of telomerase not being sufficient to prevent sen
many mouse cells have long telomeres and express telomerase but sen in culture because of 20% oxygen levels which an DNA damage due to ROS
which of the two sen pathways normally stimulates sen after DNA damage? (telomere and non telomere)
p53
when is p16 expressed following DNA damage in the sen response ?
normally a delayed response
for what type of tumours are chemotheraptuic drugs better for and why?
cells that express w ilf type p53 due to the fact these cells are more likely to senesce.
what type of chromatin perturbation can induce sen?
heterochromatin and euchromatin formation
what is the difference in the mouse response to chromatin perturbations and the human response ?
the human normally depends on pRB but in the mouse the p53 is more important
what particular oncogene has been shown to induce sen at high levels??
RAS and its pathway components such as MEK and BRAF
why would mitogenic signals trigger sen?
because these cells run the risk of increased mitogenic stimulation which increases the risk of oncogenic transformation
how can oncogenic RAS signalling trigger both pathways ?
it induces p16 but it also induces p53 via induces DNA strand breaks following lots of replication
what is the evidence for oncogenic signals stimulating sen in vivo?
activated oncogens in tissues cause benign lesions that consist of sen cells,
what kind of stressors can induce sen?
anti-proliferative cytokines such as interferon-beta by increasing intrcellular oxygen free radicals and activates p53
- TGF-beta promotes heterochromaitn formation and thus activates p16-pRB
do cells always sen from one pathway?
no some can sen from p16 and others from p53 in the same tissue- as a mosaic
which pathway can oxidative stress induce?
either!
what are the two pathways and how do they interact?
- sen signals-> ARF -] HDM2 -] p53 -> p21 -] cell cycle proteins and inhibits CDS in other pathway
- sen signals -> p16 -] CDKS -] pRB -] E2F -> cell proliferation (and activates ARF in other pathway)
how is it determined whether a cell will sen or whether the damage can be repaired and it doesn’t need to senesce? what type of cells will this only occur in?
- one possibility os that DNA repair rapidly turns off the p53 or p21 pathway where as slow or faulty repair does not
- only cells that dont express p16 or very low levels, as this pathway is irreversible
how do mouse and human sen response differ?
different stimuli can stimulate different pathways
what is the evidence for p16 and p21 not being equivalent or working in the same way?
- cells that sen only due to p21 can be reversed in vitro
- p16 is crucial to forming sen associated heterochoromatin foci which silence genes associated with proliferation- once this is formed, p16 signalling is no longer required to maintain
in which animals are sen cells found in many renewable tissue ?
rodents, primates and humans
what are 4 renewable tissues?
vasculature, haematopoetic system, epithelial organs and stroma