Cell senescence is a state of permanent cell cycle arrest that was initially defined for cells grown in cell culture. It plays a key role in age-associated organ dysfunction and age-related diseases such as cancer, but the in vivo pathogenesis is largely unclear.
A research team led by Professor Makoto Nakanishi of the Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo, generated a p16-Cre ERT2 -tdTomato mouse model to characterize in vivo p16 high cells at the single-cell level.
They found tdTomato-positive p16 high cells detectable in all organs, which were enriched with age. They also found that these cells failed to proliferate and had half-lives ranging from 2.6 to 4.2 months, depending on the tissue examined.
Single-cell transcriptomics in the liver and kidneys revealed that p16 high cells were present in various cell types, though most dominant in hepatic endothelium and