Speaker: Dr. Mate Maus, group leader of the Aging and Cancer lab at the VHIO

Aging promotes the permissiveness of tissues to cancer, contributing thereby to the rising incidence of malignancies with aging. Chronic inflammation, fibrogenesis, and accumulation of senescent cells have all been proposed to drive the permissiveness of aged tissues to cancer. In young individuals, fibrogenesis, senescence and inflammation are part of a normal protective response to tissue injury that become exacerbated with aging. Senescent cells are a main driver of fibrogenesis through their inflammatory secretome, known as senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). The mechanisms involved in fibrogenesis and in the conversion of damaged cells into senescent cells remain incompletely understood. We have recently shown that conversion of healthy tissues into fibrotic tissues and conversion of damaged cells into senescent cells are both associated with abnormal accumulation of iron. We found that iron accumulation was not just a bystander phenomenon, but a direct driver of fibrogenesis, inflammation, senescence and the SASP. We demonstrated that detection of iron by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful non-invasive method to assess and locate fibrotic burden. All tissues accumulate iron with aging. Our lab is currently exploring the connection between age-associated iron accumulation and the rising cancer incidence with age.

Host: Dr. Miguel Segura, Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders group (VHIR)