Cited by 6Telomeres, Telomerase, and SenescenceSingle-cell and spatial transcriptomicsGenetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms

Establishing the relationship between brain cellular senescence and brain structure

Open access
Lund, Anina N., Kopell, Brian H., Golestani, Negar, Vornholt, Eric, Thompson, Ryan C., Liharska, Lora E., Luo, Yuyang, Cheng, Esther +31 more·2026·Cell

Abstract

Cellular senescence and brain atrophy are both associated with brain aging, suggesting these processes may share underlying biological mechanisms. This study investigated these mechanisms by integrating structural neuroimaging with gene and protein expression data from prefrontal cortex tissue collected from individuals who underwent neurosurgery. Cell-type-specific gene expression signatures associated with neuroimaging features and cellular senescence were identified and replicated in several independent datasets. Significant correlations between these signatures were observed in excitatory neurons and microglia, especially for volume-related features. These associations were also observed for excitatory neurons in an independent brain gene expression dataset from individuals below 5 years of age, implying a role for senescence during brain development. Together, this study provides a deep characterization of molecular signatures linking brain structure and cellular senescence across different life stages and suggests mechanisms supporting brain development may also contribute to volume reduction observed during aging.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.cell.2025.10.014

Cites

115 of 115 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • SenCat adds value beyond earlier computational and ML methods through its broad atlas, its in-house generation under tightly controlled and consistent conditions, its combination of RNA and protein data, and its capacity to derive both shared and context-limited senescence programs within one framework.

    “the added value of SenCat lies in the breadth of the underlying atlas, the fact that it was entirely generated under strictly controlled and consistent settings in-house, the integration of transcriptomic and proteomic modalities, and the ability to derive both shared and context-restricted senescence-associated programs from a common framework.”

    From SenCat: Cataloging human cell senescence through multi-omic profiling of multiple senescent primary cell types (2026) · cites this paper as [27]

    Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 0 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 2 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. [19]Kuilman T, Michaloglou C, Mooi WJ, and Peeper DS (2010). The essence of senescence. Genes Dev. 24, 2463– 2479. 10.1101/gad.1971610. 21078816 PMC2975923 · DOI · Paper page
  2. [35]Ashburner M, Ball CA, Blake JA, Botstein D, Butler H, Cherry JM, Davis AP, Dolinski K, Dwight SS, Eppig JT, (2000). Gene ontology: tool for the unification of biology. The Gene Ontology Consortium. Nat. Genet. 25, 25– 29. 10.1038/75556. 10802651 PMC3037419 · DOI · Paper page
  3. [68]Kennedy MB (2013). Synaptic Signaling in Learning and Memory. Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol. 8, a016824. 10.1101/cshperspect.a016824. 24379319 PMC4743082 · DOI · Paper page
  4. [87]Kwon D, Pfefferbaum A, Sullivan EV, and Pohl KM (2020). Regional growth trajectories of cortical myelination in adolescents and young adults: longitudinal validation and functional correlates. Brain Imaging Behav. 14, 242– 266. 10.1007/s11682-018-9980-3. 30406353 PMC6506406 · DOI
  5. [119]Carlson M (2019). Genome wide annotation for Human. R package version 3.8.2. 10.18129/B9.bioc.org.Hs.eg.db. · DOI
  6. [122]Wickham H (2016). ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis (Springer-Verlag New York).

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Lund, A. N., Kopell, B. H., Golestani, N., Vornholt, E., Thompson, R. C., Liharska, L. E., Luo, Y., Cheng, E., Park, Y. J., Fennessy, B., Wilkins, L., Kaji, D. A., Silk, H., Ziafat, K., Hashemi, A., Moya, E., Feng, C., Linares, L. M., Grice, A. B., Xie, S., Rieder, M.-K., Scarpa, J., Kota, P., Cohen, V., Sullivan, B., Shah, P., Ma, W., Johnson, J. S., Miller, G. M., Searfoss, R., Chand, N. M., Wang, P., Nadkarni, G. N., Narain, N. R., Nestler, E. J., Kiebish, M. A., Schadt, E. E., Charney, A. W., & Beckmann, N. D.
Affiliations
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
  • BPGbio, Inc. (United States) (US)
Corresponding author
  • Charney, Alexander W.
  • Beckmann, Noam D.
Venue
Cell
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2026-01
Volume
189
Issue
2
Pages
511-527.e17
ISSN
0092-8674 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W7125427132
Cited by
6
References
115
Citations by year
2026: 6
FWCI
27.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cell (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute on Aging
  • Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
Keywords
cellular senescence, brain atrophy, brain aging, brain structure, prefrontal cortex, cell type-specific gene expression, excitatory neurons, microglia, brain volume, brain development
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aging, Atrophy, Brain, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Middle Aged, Neurons, Cellular Senescence, Prefrontal Cortex, Microglia, Young Adult, Transcriptome, Neuroimaging

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review