Figure 1.

Cellular senescence can be induced by several stimuli. The first to be identified was telomere shortening, which is closely connected to so-called replicative senescence. Genomic changes, including DNA damage, oncogene activation, aneuploidy, and epigenetic changes, can also lead to senescence. Other factors that may contribute to irreversible cell cycle arrest include mitochondrial dysfunction, large-scale ROS generation, and metabolic dysregulation.