In a recent paper in the journal Molecular Cell (pubmed link), several cell lines from the NIA Aging
Cell Repository were used to study CENP-A, a histone variant specific to centromeres. The authors
found that CENP-A is downregulated in aged cells in a p53-dependent manner. The results of the
study suggest a mechanism for alleviating mitotic arrest in aging cells—by activating centromeres to
restore cell-cycling potential.
Nine Human Foreskin Fibroblast cell lines from healthy male donors, ranging from 1-75 years of age
from the NIA Aging Cell Repository were used in this study: AG08498, AG09860, AG06103,
AG04441, AG13156, AG06858, AG06283, AG04659, and AG06883.
