The interplay between senescence, inflammation, and the immune system

The past 40 years have witnessed significant progress in aging research. Although aging was once considered a stochastic process, it is now understood to be regulated by pathways and processes that can be dissected with modern cellular and molecular biology approaches. The aberrant accumulation of cells undergoing cellular senescence and an increase in chronic, sterile inflammation are two of those aging hallmarks. Here we discuss how these processes are connected and how the relationship between senescent cells and the immune system dictates the extent of inflammatory processes contributing to age-related dysfunction and disease.