Senescent vs. non-senescent cells in the human annulus in vivo: Cell harvest with laser capture microdissection and gene expression studies with microarray analysis

摘要

BackgroundSenescent cells are well-recognized in the aging/degenerating human disc. Senescent cells are viable, cannot divide, remain metabolically active and accumulate within the disc over time. Molecular analysis of senescent cells in tissue offers a special challenge since there are no cell surface markers for senescence which would let one use fluorescence-activated cell sorting as a method for separating out senescent cells.