Biology of ageing: hallmarks, senescence and telomeres
The 2023 hallmarks of ageing, telomere shortening and the Hayflick limit, cellular senescence and the SASP, apoptosis versus necrosis, inflammaging and clonal haematopoiesis, progeroid syndromes and telomere biology disorders, and the drug targets (mTOR, senolytics, BCL-2) that come from them.
Tier 2Medical sciences concept
Written with AI assistance and fact-checked against the sources below. For exam study, not clinical decisions. How notes are made
At a glance
- Ageing is the progressive loss of physiological reserve with time, driven by accumulated molecular damage that outpaces repair. It is the largest single risk factor for cancer, atherosclerosis, dementia and osteoporosis.
- The 2023 update of the hallmarks of ageing lists 12: genomic instability, telomere attrition, epigenetic alterations, loss of proteostasis, disabled macroautophagy, deregulated nutrient sensing, mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular senescence, stem cell exhaustion, altered intercellular communication, chronic inflammation and dysbiosis.
- Several hallmarks are also hallmarks of cancer. Senescence and telomere shortening protect against cancer early in life and contribute to tissue decline later (antagonistic pleiotropy).
Loading the rest of the note…
Finished reading?
Sources
- Lopez-Otin C, Blasco MA, Partridge L, Serrano M, Kroemer G. Hallmarks of aging: an expanding universe. Cell 2023;186:243-78Cell (Elsevier), 2023
- Brocklehurst's Textbook of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology (8th ed.)Elsevier (Fillit, Rockwood and Young, 2017), 2017
- Jaiswal S et al. Age-related clonal hematopoiesis associated with adverse outcomes. N Engl J Med 2014;371:2488-98New England Journal of Medicine, 2014
- Harrison DE et al. Rapamycin fed late in life extends lifespan in genetically heterogeneous mice. Nature 2009;460:392-5Nature, 2009
- Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease (10th ed.)Elsevier (Kumar, Abbas and Aster, 2020), 2020
- Last updated
- 14 November 2026
What changed
- 14 November 2026 Turnstile bot check on sign-in and signed-out feedback