Date

May 27, 2025

Source

Nature

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Emerging role of mitochondrial calcium levels in cellular senescence and in switching cell fates

Manipulating senescent cells by eliminating them or by modifying their activity has attracted huge interest for its potential to delay or even treat many age-related diseases, and to improve healthy aging. Mitochondria, and in particular their calcium levels, have emerged as key regulators of cellular senescence, cell death and the balance between the two, and might constitute targets for novel strategies to stifle the viability or properties of senescent cells.

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Fig. 1: Emerging role of mitochondrial Ca2+ levels in switching cell fates.

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Acknowledgements

We thank B. Manship for critical reading of this manuscript and the ECOS-ANID program for cooperation between France and Chile (D.B. and C.C.). The authors were supported by ANID/FONDECYT #1200255 (C.C.), #1240807 (C.C.), ANID/FONDAP #15150012 (C.C.) and ANID/FONDECYT postdoctoral fellowship #3220593 (U.A.-C.). C.M. is supported by a fellowship from la Ligue Nationale Contre le Cancer. P.M.-C. is supported by ANID Doctoral scholarship.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Céline Margand, Pablo Morgado-Cáceres, Ulises Ahumada-Castro, J. César Cárdenas, Nadine Martin.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cellular Senescence, Cancer & Aging team, Cancer Research Center of Lyon, INSERM U1052, CNRS UMR 5286, Centre Léon Bérard, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, South-ROCK Consortium, Institut Convergence Plascan, Lyon, France

    Céline Margand, Nadine Martin & David Bernard

  2. Equipe Labellisée la Ligue Contre le Cancer, Lyon, France

    Céline Margand, Nadine Martin & David Bernard

  3. Center for Integrative Biology, Faculty of Sciences, Universidad Mayor, Santiago, Chile

    Pablo Morgado-Cáceres & J. César Cárdenas

  4. Geroscience Center for Brain Health and Metabolism, Santiago, Chile

    Pablo Morgado-Cáceres & J. César Cárdenas

  5. Facultad de Odontología, Universidad San Sebastián, Bellavista, Santiago, Chile

    Ulises Ahumada-Castro

Contributions

All the authors contributed to writing individual parts. D.B. conceptualized this Comment, and modified and compiled all the contributions. All of the authors revised and finalized the manuscript. C.M. drew the original figures with the help of P.M.-C.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to David Bernard.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Aging thanks the anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Cite this article

Margand, C., Morgado-Cáceres, P., Ahumada-Castro, U. et al. Emerging role of mitochondrial calcium levels in cellular senescence and in switching cell fates. Nat Aging (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-025-00887-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43587-025-00887-1

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