Reactive oxygen species (ROS) appear to play a role in limiting both cellular and organismic lifespan. However, because of their pleiotropic effects, it has been difficult to ascribe a specific role to ROS in initiating the process of cellular senescence. We have studied the effects of oxidative DNA damage on cell proliferation, believing that such damage is of central importance to triggering senescence. To do so, we devised a strategy to decouple levels of 8-oxoguanine, a major oxidative DNA lesion, from ROS levels. Suppression of MTH1 expression, which hydrolyzes 8-oxo-dGTP, was accompanied by increased total cellular 8-oxoguanine levels and caused early-passage primary and telomerase-immortalized human skin fibroblasts to rapidly undergo senescence, doing so without altering cellular ROS levels. This senescent phenotype recapitulated several salient features of replicative senescence, notably the presence of senescence-associated beta-galactosidase (SA beta-gal) activity, apparently irreparable genomic DNA breaks, and elevation of p21 Cip1 , p53, and p16 INK4A tumor suppressor protein levels. Culturing cells under low oxygen tension (3%) largely prevented the shMTH1-dependent senescent phenotype. These results indicate that the nucleotide pool is a critical target of intracellular ROS and that oxidized nucleotides, unless continuously eliminated, can rapidly induce cell senescence through signaling pathways very similar to those activated during replicative senescence.8-oxoguanine ͉ DNA damage ͉ p53 ͉ reactive oxygen species (ROS) W hen propagated in culture, normal somatic cells achieve a limited number of divisions before undergoing the loss of proliferative capacity termed replicative senescence (1). Several studies have suggested that cell senescence plays a role in organismic aging (2, 3) and that activation of senescence programs in cancer cells block tumor progression (4, 5). Consequently, elucidating the biochemical mechanisms of cellular senescence is critical for understanding the physiologic basis of aging and the mechanisms of tumorigenesis.Several lines of evidence indicate that cumulative damage to cellular constituents sustained during culture in vitro eventually triggers senescence (6, 7). Such damage can be inflicted by reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are byproducts of incomplete mitochondrial electron transfer (8). Despite the actions of detoxifying enzymes, such as superoxide dismutases (SOD1 and SOD2) and catalase, and low molecular weight antioxidants, increasing oxidative stress due to age-related mitochondrial dysfunction may eventually exceed the capacity of cellular antioxidant defenses (9). Indeed, both ROS levels and oxidative damage levels are found to be higher in late-passage cells relative to early-passage cells (10). Additionally, increased oxidative stress in the form of hyperoxia (11), treatment with hydrogen peroxide (12), shRNA-mediated knockdown of SOD1 (13), or oncogenic Ras overexpression (14, 15), causes cells to enter senescence prematurely. Conversely, culturing...