Cell Sorting of Young and Senescent Cells

Cellular senescence is the irreversible loss of proliferative potential and is accompanied by a number of phenotypic changes. First described by Hayflick and Moorhead in 1961, it has since become a popular model to study cellular aging. The replicative lifespan of human fibroblasts is heterogeneous even in clonal populations, with the fraction of senescent cells increasing with each population doubling (PD). Thus, the study of individual cells in mass culture is necessary in order to properly understand senescence and its associated phenotype. Cell sorting is a process that allows the physical separation of cells based on different characteristics which can be measured by flow cytometry. Here, we describe various methods by which senescent cells can be sorted from mixed cultures and discuss how different methods impact on the posterior analysis of sorted populations.