Akihiro Aioi
Development Laboratory, SEPTEM-SOKEN Co., Ltd.,
Tomozumi Imamichi
Laboratory of Human Retrovirology and Immunoinformatics, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research
Jun-ichi Kashiwakura
Department of Life Science, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokkaido University of Science


[Abstract]
We characterized keratinocyte senescence induced by transfection of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA), comparing with the senescence depending on replicative stress (cell passaging). The dsDNA-transfected normal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs) demonstrated 1) enlarged and flattened shape as same as passage 5 (P5) NHEKs. 2) enhanced levels of mRNA expression of IL-6 and IL-8, major components of SASP, 3) enhanced expression of senescent-associated SA-β-Gal activity, 4) accelerated obvious γ-H2AX expression. Conclusively, these results suggested that dsDNA transfection into NHEKs induced cell senescence earlier than cell passaging-induced senescence, suggesting that dsDNA transfection into the cells provides an in vitro model for studies on cellular senescence