Psoralen plus UVA (PUVA) induced premature senescence as a model for stress-induced premature senescence

Following psoralen photoactivation (PUVA treatment) human dermal fibroblasts undergo long-term growth arrest as well as morphological and functional changes reminescent of replicative senescence. Although the molecular description of cellular senescence is still incomplete, replicative senescence of cultured human cells has been suggested to reflect cellular aging in vitro. Recently, the term stress-induced premature senescence (SIPS) was introduced to define in vitro models with longterm growth arrest upon exposure to sublethal stressors (i.e. hyperoxia, hydrogen peroxide, ethanol), which are characterized by morphological and functional changes common for replicative senescence. This mini review focuses on the morphological and functional changes in the fibroblast phenotype following exposure to psoralen plus UVA (PUVA) leading to SIPS and the role of reactive oxygen species in the switch from the proliferative to the post mitotic cell. Additionally, we will discuss the possible in vivo relevance of PUVA-SIPS fibroblasts in PUVA-treated patients. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.