Metabolic features and regulation in cell senescence

Organismal aging is accompanied by a host of progressive metabolic alterations and an accumulation of senescent cells, along with functional decline and the appearance of multiple diseases. This implies that the metabolic features of cell senescence(definition) may contribute to the organism's metabolic changes and be closely linked to age-associated diseases, especially metabolic syndromes. However, there is no clear understanding of senescent metabolic characteristics. Here, we review key metabolic features and regulators of cellular senescence, focusing on mitochondrial dysfunction(definition) and anabolic deregulation, and their link to other senescence phenotypes and aging. We further discuss the mechanistic involvement of the metabolic regulators mTOR(definition), AMPK, and GSK3, proposing them as key metabolic switches for modulating senescence. [BMB Reports 2019; 52(1): 5-12].