Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2018 Aug:109:5-15.
doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2017.10.015. Epub 2017 Oct 18.

Mechanisms driving the ageing heart

Rhys Anderson  1 , Gavin D Richardson  2 , João F Passos  3
Affiliations
Review

Mechanisms driving the ageing heart

Rhys Anderson et al. Exp Gerontol. 2018 Aug.

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death globally. One of the main risk factors for CVD is age, however the biological processes that occur in the heart during ageing are poorly understood. It is therefore important to understand the fundamental mechanisms driving heart ageing to enable the development of preventions and treatments targeting these processes. Cellular senescence is often described as the irreversible cell-cycle arrest which occurs in somatic cells. Emerging evidence suggests that cellular senescence plays a key role in heart ageing, however the cell-types involved and the underlying mechanisms are not yet elucidated. In this review we discuss the current understanding of how mechanisms known to contribute to senescence impact on heart ageing and CVD. Finally, we evaluate recent data suggesting that targeting senescent cells may be a viable therapy to counteract the ageing of the heart.

Keywords: DNA damage response; Mitochondria; Reactive oxygen species; Senescence; Telomeres.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

Substances

LinkOut - more resources