IN-VITRO STUDY OF THE MECHANISMS OF SENESCENCE ACCELERATION

Accelerated senescence can be considered to be an aging process that o ccurs after development and maturity and is characterized by a higher rate of increase in the degree of senescence than seen in the ''normal senescence process.'' We devised culture methods to determine precise population doublings in cultured fibroblast-like cell lines and subse quently compared the aging process, in vitro, in cell lines establishe d from either accelerated senescence-prone or -resistant strains of mi ce to obtain evidence of accelerated aging. Fibroblastlike cell lines were established from the dorsal dermis of the newborn accelerated sen escence-prone mice of the SAMP11 strain and from accelerated senescenc e-resistant mice of the SAMR1 strain. All cell lines from both strains showed senescence as evidenced by a crisis in growth; then were immor talized. However, in cell lines from the SAMP11 strain, this growth cr isis occurred more rapidly and at earlier population doubling levels t han in cell lines from the SAMR1 strain. The methods and materials sho uld aid in the elucidation of mechanisms linked to accelerated senesce nce in mice. Copyright (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Inc.