"The Limited In Vitro Lifetime of Human Diploid Cell Strains" (1964), by Leonard Hayflick

The Limited in Vitro Lifetime of Human Diploid Cell Strains.

Leonard Hayflick [3] in the US during the early 1960s showed that normal populations of embryonic cells divide a finite number of times. He published his results as "The Limited In Vitro Lifetime of Human Diploid Cell Strains" in 1964. Hayflick performed the experiment with WI-38 fetal lung cells, named after the Wistar Institute, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where Hayflick worked. Frank MacF...

Serial Cultivation of Human Diploid Cells in the Lab (1958?1961) by Leonard Hayflick and Paul S. Moorhead

From 1958 to 1961, Leonard Hayflick [2] and Paul Moorhead [3] in the US developed a way in the laboratory to cultivate strains of human cells with complete sets of chromosomes. Previously, scientists could not sustain cell cultures with cells that had two complete sets of chromosomes like normal human cells (diploid). As a result, scientists struggled to study human cell biology because there w...

Karyological Characteristics of two Human Diploid Cell Strains; WI-38 and MRC-5

50 Aging of Skin Cells in Culture

The study of age-related changes in the physiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology of isolated skin cell populations in culture has greatly expanded the understanding of the fundamental aspects of skin aging. In modern biogerontology, the terms ‘‘cellular aging,’’ ‘‘cell senescence,’’ or ‘‘replicative senescence’’ most commonly imply the study of normal diploid cells in culture, which duri...

The commitment of human cells to senescence.

Fifty years ago, it was demonstrated by Leonard Hayflick that human diploid fibroblasts grown in culture have a finite lifespan. Since that time, innumerable experiments have been published to discover the mechanism(s) that are responsible for this 'Hayflick limit' to continuous growth. Much new information has been gained, but there are certain features of this experimental system which have n...