Regulatory autoantibody and cellular aging and removal.

Abstract

Senescent cell antigen (SCA), an aging antigen, was discovered in 1975 (Kay, 1975). It is a protein that appears on old cells and marks them for death. It acts as a specific signal for cellular termination by initiating the binding of IgG autoantibody and subsequent removal by phagocytes (Kay, 1975, 1978,1981, 1984, 1983, 1986, 1988a, 1988b, 1988c, 1990; Kay et al., 1986, 1989, 1982, 1983a, 1988a, 1988b,1991, 1990a, 1990b, 1990c, 1990d; Kay and Lin, 1990; Bennett and Kay, 1981; Singer et al., 1986; Glass et al., 1983, 1985; Bartosz et al., 1982a, 1982b; Khansari et al., 1983; Khansari and Fedenberg, 1983; Walker et al., 1984; Lutz et al., 1984; Petz et al., 1984; Hebbel and Miller, 1984). This appears to be a general physiologic process for removing senescent and damaged cells in mammals and other vertebrates (Kay, 1981). Although the initial studies is done using human erythrocytes as a model, senescent cell antigen was discovered on cells besides erythrocytes in 1981 (Kay, 1981). It occurs on all cells examined (Kay, 1981). The aging antigen itself is generated by the degradation of an important structural and transport membrane molecule, protein band 3 (Kay, 1984). Besides its role in the removal of senescent and damaged cells, senescent cell antigen also appears to be involved in the removal of erythrocytes in clinical hemolytic anemias (Kay et al., 1989, 1990a), sickle cell anemia (Petz et al., 1984; Hebbel and Miller, 1984) and the removal of malaria-infected erythrocytes (Okoye and Bennett, 1985; Friedman et al., 1985). Oxidation generates senescent cell antigen in situ (Kay et al., 1986). KeywordsCellular AgingSenescent CellAnion TransportAntiidiotypic AntibodyInhibit Anion TransportThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.