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Research Paper|Volume 8, Issue 5|pp 841—847

Sensitivity of primary fibroblasts in culture to atmospheric oxygen does not correlate with species lifespan

Alison Patrick1, Michael Seluanov1, Chaewon Hwang1, Jonathan Tam1, Tanya Khan1, Ari Morgenstern1, Lauren Wiener1, Juan M. M. Vazquez1, Hiba Zafar1, Robert Wen1, Malika Muratkalyeva1, Katherine Doerig1, Maria Zagorulya1, Lauren Cole1, Sophia Catalano1, Aliny AB AB Lobo Ladd2, A. Augusto Augusto Coppi3, Yüksel Coşkun4, Xiao Tian1, Julia Ablaeva1, Eviatar Nevo5, Vadim N. N. Gladyshev6, Zhengdong D. D. Zhang7, Jan Vijg7, Andrei Seluanov1, Vera Gorbunova1
  • 1Department of Biology, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA
  • 2Laboratory of Stochastic Stereology and Chemical Anatomy (LSSCA), Department of Surgery, College of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil
  • 3School of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK
  • 4Science Faculty, Biology Department, Dicle University, 21280 Diyarbakır, Turkey
  • 5Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel
  • 6Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
  • 7Department of Genetics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
Received: February 2, 2016Accepted: April 26, 2016Published: May 7, 2016

Copyright: © 2016 Patrick et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Differences in the way human and mouse fibroblasts experience senescence in culture had long puzzled researchers. While senescence of human cells is mediated by telomere shortening, Parrinello et al. demonstrated that senescence of mouse cells is caused by extreme oxygen sensitivity. It was hypothesized that the striking difference in oxygen sensitivity between mouse and human cells explains their different rates of aging. To test if this hypothesis is broadly applicable, we cultured cells from 16 rodent species with diverse lifespans in 3% and 21% oxygen and compared their growth rates. Unexpectedly, fibroblasts derived from laboratory mouse strains were the only cells demonstrating extreme sensitivity to oxygen. Cells from hamster, muskrat, woodchuck, capybara, blind mole rat, paca, squirrel, beaver, naked mole rat and wild-caught mice were mildly sensitive to oxygen, while cells from rat, gerbil, deer mouse, chipmunk, guinea pig and chinchilla showed no difference in the growth rate between 3% and 21% oxygen. We conclude that, although the growth of primary fibroblasts is generally improved by maintaining cells in 3% oxygen, the extreme oxygen sensitivity is a peculiarity of laboratory mouse strains, possibly related to their very long telomeres, and fibroblast oxygen sensitivity does not directly correlate with species' lifespan.