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Aging Cell Apr 2021The field of research on cellular senescence experienced a rapid expansion from being primarily focused on in vitro aspects of aging to the vast territories of animal... (Review)
Review
The field of research on cellular senescence experienced a rapid expansion from being primarily focused on in vitro aspects of aging to the vast territories of animal and clinical research. Cellular senescence is defined by a set of markers, many of which are present and accumulate in a gradual manner prior to senescence induction or are found outside of the context of cellular senescence. These markers are now used to measure the impact of cellular senescence on aging and disease as well as outcomes of anti-senescence interventions, many of which are at the stage of clinical trials. It is thus of primary importance to discuss their specificity as well as their role in the establishment of senescence. Here, the presence and role of senescence markers are described in cells prior to cell cycle arrest, especially in the context of replicative aging and in vivo conditions. Specifically, this review article seeks to describe the process of "cellular aging": the progression of internal changes occurring in primary cells leading to the induction of cellular senescence and culminating in cell death. Phenotypic changes associated with aging prior to senescence induction will be characterized, as well as their effect on the induction of cell senescence and the final fate of cells reviewed. Using published datasets on assessments of senescence markers in vivo, it will be described how disparities between quantifications can be explained by the concept of cellular aging. Finally, throughout the article the applicational value of broadening cellular senescence paradigm will be discussed.
Topics: Aging; Animals; Biomarkers; Cell Cycle Checkpoints; Cell Division; Cell Proliferation; Cell Size; Cellular Senescence; DNA Breaks, Double-Stranded; Humans; Phenotype; Telomere Shortening
PubMed: 33711211
DOI: 10.1111/acel.13338 -
Cells Feb 2022All living organisms on Earth are made up of cells, which are the functional unit of life. Eukaryotic organisms can consist of a single cell (unicellular) or a group of... (Review)
Review
All living organisms on Earth are made up of cells, which are the functional unit of life. Eukaryotic organisms can consist of a single cell (unicellular) or a group of either identical or different cells (multicellular). Biologists have always been fascinated by how a single cell, such as an egg, can give rise to an entire organism, such as the human body, composed of billions of cells, including hundreds of different cell types. This is made possible by cell division, whereby a single cell divides to form two cells. During a symmetric cell division, a mother cell produces two daughter cells, while an asymmetric cell division results in a mother and a daughter cell that have different fates (different morphologies, cellular compositions, replicative potentials, and/or capacities to differentiate). In biology, the cell cycle refers to the sequence of events that a cell must go through in order to divide. These events, which always occur in the same order, define the different stages of the cell cycle: G1, S, G2, and M. What is fascinating about the cell cycle is its universality, and the main reason for this is that the genetic information of the cell is encoded by exactly the same molecular entity with exactly the same structure: the DNA double helix. Since both daughter cells always inherit their genetic information from their parent cell, the underlying fundamentals of the cell cycle-DNA replication and chromosome segregation-are shared by all organisms. This review goes back in time to provide a historical summary of the main discoveries that led to the current understanding of how cells divide and how cell division is regulated to remain highly reproducible.
Topics: Cell Cycle; Cell Cycle Checkpoints; Cell Division; DNA Replication; Humans
PubMed: 35203358
DOI: 10.3390/cells11040704 -
International Journal of Molecular... Mar 2022Human female fertility and reproductive lifespan decrease significantly with age, resulting in an extended post-reproductive period. The central dogma in human female... (Review)
Review
Human female fertility and reproductive lifespan decrease significantly with age, resulting in an extended post-reproductive period. The central dogma in human female reproduction contains two important aspects. One is the pool of oocytes in the human ovary (the ovarian reserve; approximately 10 at birth), which diminishes throughout life until menopause around the age of 50 (approximately 10 oocytes) in women. The second is the quality of oocytes, including the correctness of meiotic divisions, among other factors. Notably, the increased rate of sub- and infertility, aneuploidy, miscarriages, and birth defects are associated with advanced maternal age, especially in women above 35 years of age. This postponement is also relevant for human evolution; decades ago, the female aging-related fertility drop was not as important as it is today because women were having their children at a younger age. Spindle assembly is crucial for chromosome segregation during each cell division and oocyte maturation, making it an important event for euploidy. Consequently, aberrations in this segregation process, especially during the first meiotic division in human eggs, can lead to implantation failure or spontaneous abortion. Today, human reproductive medicine is also facing a high prevalence of aneuploidy, even in young females. However, the shift in the reproductive phase of humans and the strong increase in errors make the problem much more dramatic at later stages of the female reproductive phase. Aneuploidy in human eggs could be the result of the non-disjunction of entire chromosomes or sister chromatids during oocyte meiosis, but partial or segmental aneuploidies are also relevant. In this review, we intend to describe the relevance of the spindle apparatus during oocyte maturation for proper chromosome segregation in the context of maternal aging and the female reproductive lifespan.
Topics: Aging; Aneuploidy; Chromosome Segregation; Female; Humans; Meiosis; Oocytes; Pregnancy; Spindle Apparatus
PubMed: 35270022
DOI: 10.3390/ijms23052880 -
The Journal of Cell Biology May 2023Enduring chromosome segregation errors represent potential threats to genomic stability due to eventual chromosome copy number alterations (aneuploidy) and formation of... (Review)
Review
Enduring chromosome segregation errors represent potential threats to genomic stability due to eventual chromosome copy number alterations (aneuploidy) and formation of micronuclei-key intermediates of a rapid mutational process known as chromothripsis that is found in cancer and congenital disorders. The spindle assembly checkpoint (SAC) has been viewed as the sole surveillance mechanism that prevents chromosome segregation errors during mitosis and meiosis. However, different types of chromosome segregation errors stemming from incorrect kinetochore-microtubule attachments satisfy the SAC and are more frequent than previously anticipated. Remarkably, recent works have unveiled that most of these errors are corrected during anaphase and only rarely result in aneuploidy or formation of micronuclei. Here, we discuss recent progress in our understanding of the origin and fate of chromosome segregation errors that satisfy the SAC and shed light on the surveillance, correction, and clearance mechanisms that prevent their transmission, to preserve genomic stability.
Topics: Humans; Anaphase; Aneuploidy; Chromosome Segregation; Kinetochores; Microtubules; Mitosis; Spindle Apparatus; Genomic Instability
PubMed: 37017932
DOI: 10.1083/jcb.202301106 -
Development (Cambridge, England) Feb 2021Quiescence is a cellular state in which a cell remains out of the cell cycle but retains the capacity to divide. The unique ability of adult stem cells to maintain... (Review)
Review
Quiescence is a cellular state in which a cell remains out of the cell cycle but retains the capacity to divide. The unique ability of adult stem cells to maintain quiescence is crucial for life-long tissue homeostasis and regenerative capacity. Quiescence has long been viewed as an inactive state but recent studies have shown that it is in fact an actively regulated process and that adult stem cells are highly reactive to extrinsic stimuli. This has fuelled hopes of boosting the reactivation potential of adult stem cells to improve tissue function during ageing. In this Review, we provide a perspective of the quiescent state and discuss how quiescent adult stem cells transition into the cell cycle. We also discuss current challenges in the field, highlighting recent technical advances that could help overcome some of these challenges.
Topics: Adult Stem Cells; Cell Cycle; Cell Differentiation; Cell Division; Cell Proliferation; Epigenomics; Homeostasis; Humans; Stem Cells
PubMed: 33558315
DOI: 10.1242/dev.165084 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Jul 2022Cancer is a multifactorial disorder caused by several aberrations in gene expression that generate a homeostatic imbalance between cell division and death [...].
Cancer is a multifactorial disorder caused by several aberrations in gene expression that generate a homeostatic imbalance between cell division and death [...].
Topics: Cell Division; Humans; Neoplasms
PubMed: 35889522
DOI: 10.3390/molecules27144650 -
Science (New York, N.Y.) Jul 2020Cell size is fundamental to cell physiology. For example, cell size determines the spatial scale of organelles and intracellular transport and thereby affects...
Cell size is fundamental to cell physiology. For example, cell size determines the spatial scale of organelles and intracellular transport and thereby affects biosynthesis. Although some genes that affect mammalian cell size have been identified, the molecular mechanisms through which cell growth drives cell division have remained elusive. We show that cell growth during the G phase of the cell division cycle dilutes the cell cycle inhibitor Retinoblastoma protein (Rb) to trigger division in human cells. overexpression increased cell size and G duration, whereas deletion decreased cell size and removed the inverse correlation between cell size at birth and the duration of the G phase. Thus, Rb dilution through cell growth in G provides one of the long-sought molecular mechanisms that promotes cell size homeostasis.
Topics: Cell Cycle Checkpoints; Cell Division; Cell Proliferation; Cell Size; G1 Phase; Humans; Retinoblastoma Protein
PubMed: 32703881
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaz6213 -
Journal of Cell Science Sep 2020Human retinal pigment epithelial-1 (RPE-1) cells are increasingly being used as a model to study mitosis because they represent a non-transformed alternative to cancer...
Human retinal pigment epithelial-1 (RPE-1) cells are increasingly being used as a model to study mitosis because they represent a non-transformed alternative to cancer cell lines, such as HeLa cervical adenocarcinoma cells. However, the lack of an efficient method to synchronize RPE-1 cells in mitosis precludes their application for large-scale biochemical and proteomics assays. Here, we report a protocol to synchronize RPE-1 cells based on sequential treatments with the Cdk4 and Cdk6 inhibitor PD 0332991 (palbociclib) and the microtubule-depolymerizing drug nocodazole. With this method, the vast majority (80-90%) of RPE-1 cells arrested at prometaphase and exited mitosis synchronously after release from nocodazole. Moreover, the cells fully recovered and re-entered the cell cycle after the palbociclib-nocodazole block. Finally, we show that this protocol could be successfully employed for the characterization of the protein-protein interaction network of the kinetochore protein Ndc80 by immunoprecipitation coupled with mass spectrometry. This synchronization method significantly expands the versatility and applicability of RPE-1 cells to the study of cell division and might be applied to other cell lines that do not respond to treatments with DNA synthesis inhibitors.
Topics: Humans; Kinetochores; Mitosis; Nocodazole; Prometaphase; Retinal Pigments
PubMed: 32878943
DOI: 10.1242/jcs.247940 -
Journal of Bacteriology Nov 2019Reproduction in the bacterial kingdom predominantly occurs through binary fission-a process in which one parental cell is divided into two similarly sized daughter... (Review)
Review
Reproduction in the bacterial kingdom predominantly occurs through binary fission-a process in which one parental cell is divided into two similarly sized daughter cells. How cell division, in conjunction with cell elongation and chromosome segregation, is orchestrated by a multitude of proteins has been an active area of research spanning the past few decades. Together, the monumental endeavors of multiple laboratories have identified several cell division and cell shape regulators as well as their underlying regulatory mechanisms in rod-shaped and , which serve as model organisms for Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, respectively. Yet our understanding of bacterial cell division and morphology regulation is far from complete, especially in noncanonical and non-rod-shaped organisms. In this review, we focus on two proteins that are highly conserved in Gram-positive organisms, DivIVA and its homolog GpsB, and attempt to summarize the recent advances in this area of research and discuss their various roles in cell division, cell growth, and chromosome segregation in addition to their interactome and posttranslational regulation.
Topics: Bacillus subtilis; Bacterial Proteins; Cell Division; Cell Proliferation; Chromosome Segregation; Protein Processing, Post-Translational
PubMed: 31405912
DOI: 10.1128/JB.00245-19 -
Oncogene May 2022Proper progression through the cell-division cycle is critical to normal development and homeostasis and is necessarily misregulated in cancer. The key to cell-cycle... (Review)
Review
Proper progression through the cell-division cycle is critical to normal development and homeostasis and is necessarily misregulated in cancer. The key to cell-cycle regulation is the control of two waves of transcription that occur at the onset of DNA replication (S phase) and mitosis (M phase). MuvB complexes play a central role in the regulation of these genes. When cells are not actively dividing, the MuvB complex DREAM represses G1/S and G2/M genes. Remarkably, MuvB also forms activator complexes together with the oncogenic transcription factors B-MYB and FOXM1 that are required for the expression of the mitotic genes in G2/M. Despite this essential role in the control of cell division and the relationship to cancer, it has been unclear how MuvB complexes inhibit and stimulate gene expression. Here we review recent discoveries of MuvB structure and molecular interactions, including with nucleosomes and other chromatin-binding proteins, which have led to the first mechanistic models for the biochemical function of MuvB complexes.
Topics: Cell Cycle; Cell Cycle Proteins; Humans; Mitosis; Neoplasms; Trans-Activators
PubMed: 35468940
DOI: 10.1038/s41388-022-02321-x