The potential of erythrocytes as cellular aging models

Aging is a complicate process that is far away from being understood but increasingly being investigated. The term is majorly used for multicellular organisms because singe cells, especially cell lines used in laboratories, are often immortal. Nevertheless, also multicellular organisms are based on single cells. Therefore, the understanding of how organisms age requires the understanding of how single cells age. In the recent years and with the progress in single-cell molecular biology, a certain genetic determination of aging transcriptional signatures and aging patterns were recognized, for example. 1 However, from studies of genetically identical organisms it became evident that other factors than genetic regulation have a significant influence on cellular aging. 2 Therefore, more physiological measures as read-outs for cell aging have been proposed. 3 This is a very sensible concept but even if cells are in the G o -phase of the cell cycle and can be regarded as senescent, protein translation and other modes of biosynthesis mask the intrinsic aging process of particular subcellular components. To really understand the post mature aging requires a cell model with vastly quiescent translation and biosynthesis. Even in this case, one must distinguish single-cell aging after cell replacement into an (artificial) environment like a primary cell culture on the one hand and a natural behavior with systemic interactions on the other hand.