I have seen a number of papers in which substances will alter the lifespan of
cells in culture. One thing that appears to be a common feature in these
reports is that repeat runs of apparently identical conditions are not
particularly reproduceable. Robin Halliday in his paper comments on this and
suggests that a clonal succession may occur, where old cell lines are
dominated by clones arising from the odd cell that is rather less senescent
than their sibling cells.
In theory it should be possible to detect senescent cells arising in cultures
in about midpassage and quantify them. Has anyone any thoughts on this matter?
An alternative, but less useful approach may be to use markers for senescence
in the total cell mass. Has anyone any suggestions for good markers?
Chris Driver
Chris Driver, Ph D
School of Biology and Chemistry, Rusden Campus
Deakin University
662 Blackburn Rd
Clayton, VIC, 3168
AUSTRALIA
