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Perspectives on the dynamic implications of cellular senescence and immunosenescence on macrophage aging biology

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Abstract

An intricate relationship between impaired immune functions and the age-related accumulation of tissue senescent cells is rapidly emerging. The immune system is unique as it undergoes mutually inclusive and deleterious processes of immunosenescence and cellular senescence with advancing age. While factors inducing immunosenescence and cellular senescence may be shared, however, both these processes are fundamentally different which holistically influence the aging immune system. Our understanding of the biological impact of immunosenescence is relatively well-understood, but such knowledge regarding cellular senescence in immune cells, especially in the innate immune cells such as macrophages, is only beginning to be elucidated. Tissue-resident macrophages are long-lived, and while functioning in tissue-specific and niche-specific microenvironments, senescence in macrophages can be directly influenced by senescent host cells which may impact organismal aging. In addition, evidence of age-associated immunometabolic changes as drivers of altered macrophage phenotype and functions such as inflamm-aging is also emerging. The present review describes the emerging impact of cellular senescence vis-à-vis immunosenescence in aging macrophages, its biological relevance with other senescent non-immune cells, and known immunometabolic regulators. Gaps in our present knowledge, as well as strategies aimed at understanding cellular senescence and its therapeutics in the context of macrophages, have been reviewed.

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Abbreviations

SC:

Senescent cells

SASP:

Senescence-associated secretory phenotype

SA-β-gal:

Senescence-associated β-galactosidase

mTOR:

Mammalian target of rapamycin

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

NAD+ :

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide

MDSC:

Myeloid-derived suppressor cells

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Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India under the INSPIRE Faculty scheme (Grant No. IFA17-LSPA79).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Correspondence to Rohit Sharma.

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Sharma, R. Perspectives on the dynamic implications of cellular senescence and immunosenescence on macrophage aging biology. Biogerontology 22, 571–587 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10522-021-09936-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10522-021-09936-9

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