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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Feb 1.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Opin Genet Dev. 2010 Nov 17;21(1):107–112. doi: 10.1016/j.gde.2010.10.005

Figure 1. Characteristics and documented presence of senescent cells.

Figure 1

Potentially oncogenic stimuli induce cellular senescence via activation of the p53 and pRB tumor suppressor pathways. The senescent phenotype develops over several days in culture, and, depending on the type of cell and stimulus, includes expression of SA-Bgal activity and p16INK4a, development of DNA-SCARS that provide continuous DDR signals and SAHF, and the expression of a SASP. To varying extents, these senescence-associated characteristics have been used to identify senescent cells in vivo in mouse, non-human primate and human tissues. Conditions under which senescence cells have been identified in vivo include normal aging, damaged or wounded tissues, degenerative pathologies of aging, and hyperplastic, preneoplastic and early neoplastic lesions.