Research Perspective|Volume 3, Issue 10|pp 913—919

Deciphering the role of Nuclear Factor-κB in cellular senescence

Simon Vaughan¹, Parmjit S. Jat

¹Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Institute of Neurology, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK

Received: September 15, 2011Accepted: September 25, 2011Published: September 26, 2011

Copyright: © 2011 Vaughan et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Cellular senescence is a program of irreversible cell cycle arrest that cells undergo in response to a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic stimuli including progressive shortening of telomeres, changes in telomeric structure or other forms of genotoxic and non-genotoxic stress. The role of nuclear factor-κB in cellular senescence is controversial, as it has been associated with both proliferation and tumour progression, and also with growth arrest and ageing. This research perspective focuses on the evidence for a functional relationship between NF-κB and senescence, and how disruption of the NF-κB pathway can lead to its bypass.