Resumo

PARDO ANDREU, Gilberto  e  DELGADO HERNANDEZ, René. Senescencia celular y envejecimiento. Rev Cubana Invest Bioméd [online]. 2003, vol.22, n.3, pp.204-212. ISSN 0864-0300.

A review about cellular senescence was made. Aging in multicellular complex organisms, such as the mammals leads to distinctive changes in cells and molecules that compromise finally their adequate functioning. Many of these changes result from the cellular responses that have evolved to reduce the inevitable impact of endogenous and environmental changes leading finally to the phenotype characteristic of oldness. This means that some cellular changes associated with age may be the result of the activity of genes that were selected because of their beneficial effects at early ages and that, at the same time, present deleterous and poorly selected actions at advanced ages. Cell aging may be an example of this phenomenon. It is essential for the viability and the good functioning of young organisms, but it may also contribute to the aging phenotype and to some diseases associated with it. This way, we can say that aging may be the price you have to pay for having an optimum health at early ages of development.

Palavras-chave : CELL AGING; SELECTION (GENETICS); PHENOTYPE.