Rapamycin induces pluripotent genes associated with avoidance of replicative senescence

Abstract

Primary rodent cells undergo replicative senescence, independent from telomere shortening. We have recently shown that treatment with rapamycin during passages 3–7 suppressed replicative senescence in rat embryonic fibroblasts (REFs), which otherwise occurred by 10–14 passages. Here, we further investigated rapamycin-primed cells for an extended number of passages. Rapamycin-primed cells continued to proliferate without accumulation of senescent markers. Importantly, these cells retained the ability to undergo serum starvation- and etoposide-induced cell cycle arrest. The p53/p21 pathway was functional. This indicates that rapamycin did not cause either transformation or loss of cell cycle checkpoints. We found that rapamycin activated transcription of pluripotent genes, oct-4, sox-2, nanog, as well as further upregulated telomerase (tert) gene. The rapamycin-derived cells have mostly non-rearranged, near-normal karyotype. Still, when cultivated for a higher number of passages, these cells acquired a chromosomal marker within the chromosome 3. We conclude that suppression mTORC1 activity may prevent replicative senescence without transformation of rodent cells.

Keywords::

• aging
• senescence
• mTOR
• gerosuppression
• rapalogs