Senescent cells spread the word: non-cell autonomous propagation of cellular senescence.

Nat Cell Biol advance online publication, June 16 2013; doi:; DOI: 10.1038/ncb2784 Senescence has long been considered a cell autonomous arrest programme restricting the propagation of damaged cells in tissues. Now there is accumulating evidence that senescent cells can communicate with their environment. In a recent report by Gil and colleagues (Acosta et al, 2013), it now seems senescence can be transmitted in a paracrine fashion in several and contexts. In addition to broadening our understanding of the biology of senescence, these new findings may have interesting implications for tissue homeostasis and future cancer therapies.