LAUSR

Cellular senescence is a phenomenon of irreversible growth arrest of mammalian somatic cells. Senescent cells increase the production of secretory proteins such as inflammatory cytokines, a phenomenon termed senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). SASP is known to have profound effects on organismal health and aging; however, the molecular mechanisms of SASP are not precisely understood. In our previous studies, we have shown that senescent cells show decreased function of lamin B receptor (LBR), a nuclear membrane protein that regulates heterochromatin organization. Here we examined the implication of LBR in the regulation of SASP because senescent cells show altered heterochromatin organization, which would affect gene expression. We found that knock-down of LBR up-regulated the expression of the SASP factors such as IL-6, IL-8, and MMP1 in HeLa cells, even though cellular senescence was not induced by LBR knock-down. Conversely, enforced expression of LBR suppressed their up-regulated expression in senescent cells induced by excess thymidine. Further, our gene expression profile analysis also showed that many secretory proteins were up-regulated by LBR knock-down. We then analyzed the regulatory mechanisms of the expression of SASP factors by LBR, and found that the promotors of these SASP factors associated with LBR in normally growing cells, but dissociated from it in senescent cells. Additionally, we found that enforced expression of LBR decreased the generation of cytoplasmic DNA, which could be involved in SASP, in senescent cells. These findings suggested that LBR would play crucial roles in the regulation of SASP.