Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Induction and Validation of Cellular Senescence in Primary Human Cells
Published on: June 20, 2018
Reprogramming of replicative senescence in hepatocellular carcinoma-derived cells
Nuri Ozturk1, Esra Erdal, Mine Mumcuoglu
1Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bilkent University, Bilkent, Ankara 06800, Turkey. ozturk@fen.bilkent.edu.tr
Abstract:
Tumor cells have the capacity to proliferate indefinitely that is qualified as replicative immortality. This ability contrasts with the intrinsic control of the number of cell divisions in human somatic tissues by a mechanism called replicative senescence. Replicative immortality is acquired by inactivation of p53 and p16INK4a genes and reactivation of hTERT gene expression. It is unknown whether the cancer cell replicative immortality is reversible. Here, we show the spontaneous induction of replicative senescence in p53-and p16INK4a-deficient hepatocellular carcinoma cells. This phenomenon is characterized with hTERT repression, telomere shortening, senescence arrest, and tumor suppression. SIP1 gene (ZFHX1B) is partly responsible for replicative senescence, because short hairpin RNA-mediated SIP1 inactivation released hTERT repression and rescued clonal hepatocellular carcinoma cells from senescence arrest.
Related Concept Videos
Replicative Cell Senescence
Replicative Cell Senescence
Somatic to iPS Cell Reprogramming
Methods of Nuclear Reprogramming
Introduction to Nuclear Reprogramming
Tissue Renewal without Stem Cells
However, failure of such a system...

