Pericentromeric noncoding RNA drives the senescence-associated secretory phenotype

Aging is one of the risk factors for cancer development because the accumulation of senescent cells during the aging process contributes to various age-related pathologies through senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Therefore, an understanding of the molecular mechanism involved in SASP regulation could have a tremendous impact on our health. Here, we discovered that noncoding RNA derived from normally silenced pericentromeric repetitive sequences during cellular senescence, and analyzed the effect of the RNA on gene expression and chromosomal alteration in SVts8 cells, a conditionally immortalized human fibroblast cell line.