When growth becomes a weakness
ETH researchers are clarifying what can happen when cells exceed their normal size and become senescent. The new findings could help to optimize cancer therapies.
In brief
- If cells in cell cultures grow while being treated with division-suppressing agents, their growth becomes excessive and they permanently lose their ability to divide.
- However, if the cells are treated with a combination of division inhibitors and growth inhibitors, they remain capable of dividing after these substances have been discontinued.
- The findings could be transferred to certain cancer therapies, but first need to be clinically tested and confirmed.