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The illusion of cell immortality
Open accessAbstract
Normal cultured cell populations are mortal but cells that are immortal are abnormal and most have properties of cancer cells. Nevertheless, this distinction becomes blurred because the terms 'mortality' and 'immortality' are subject to enormous variations in understanding. Forty years ago we showed that cell mortality and immortality are inextricably linked to longevity determination, ageing and cancer. We suggested that a counting mechanism existed in normal cells and that has now been identified as telomere attrition. This replicometer, in combination with the discovery of the enzyme telomerase, has gone very far in explaining why most normal somatic cells have a finite capacity to replicate both in vivo and in vitro and how immortal cancer cells circumvent this inevitability. It is suggested that telomere attrition may be better understood as a direct measure of longevity determination and to only have an indirect association with age changes.
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“Attrition of telomeres is a protective mechanism against cancer, as each round of proliferation is likely to introduce mutations [100].”
From Evolution of the immune system in humans from infancy to old age (2015) · cites this paper as [100]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Hayflick, L.
- Affiliations
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Corresponding author
- Hayflick, L
- ORCID
- Hayflick, L
- Venue
- British Journal of Cancer
- Published
- 2000-10
- Volume
- 83
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 841-846
- ISSN
- 0007-0920 (ISSN-L)
- 1532-1827
- PMC
- PMC2374692
- OpenAlex
- W1510708869
- Cited by
- 124
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 0.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-sa
- Locations
- British Journal of Cancer (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer-related Molecular Pathways
- Keywords
- cell immortalization, cell death, telomere shortening, telomerase, replicative capacity, cellular aging, cancer cells
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Cell Survival, Cells, Cultured, Humans, Neoplasms, Telomere, Cellular Senescence, Cell Death
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