Every day, an estimated 330 billion cells grow and divide, replacing the cells that have died or are no longer working properly to maintain bodily functions. However, a cell can only divide so many times before it becomes exhausted or the risk of creating an errant cell becomes too high. When a cell has exhausted its growing and dividing potentials, it enters a process called cellular senescence, or the process of a cell exiting the growing cycle and essentially becoming dormant. This process can be triggered by many different stressors, and errors in this process have been linked with cancer and the onset of other age-related diseases. In an effort to further understand the mechanism of cellular senescence, the Jackson Laboratory, working in tandem with several other institutions, has developed the SenNet Consortium to study senescent cells in various human tissues.
Working to profile various components of cells in multiple tissues, researchers from the SenNet Consortium hope to learn more about the process of cellular senescence and its contribution to age-related disease.
Image Source: nicolas_
The overarching goal of the SenNet Consortium is to collect samples from 18 different human organs across their lifespan to further explore the biology surrounding senescence. Currently, there is no definitive marker for cellular senescence; however, the team hopes to find one by analyzing various cellular components such as lipids, proteins, DNA, and metabolites. By profiling how these various markers change as a person ages, the team hopes to identify what factors trigger the process of senescence. Furthermore, analyzing tissues from various organs in the body can provide information about the aging process specific to each organ allowing researchers to learn more about how different organs age compared to others. Since all of the organs in our body have vastly different roles and are exposed to different stressors, the aging process could potentially look quite different for each organ.
The long-term goal of this project is to take what is learned about cellular aging and apply that to human disease, hopefully learning more about the onset of age-related conditions or how senescence plays a role in disease development. There is also hope that the information gained from this project could translate into the clinical space with the ability to better identify those at risk or diagnose those with age-related conditions
Featured Image Source: vchalup
