Vazquez-Padron RI. Stress-induced senescence exaggerates postinjury neointimal formation in the old vasculature. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 298: H66 -H74, 2010. First published October 23, 2009 doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00501.2009This study aims to demonstrate the role of stress-induced senescence in aged-related neointimal formation. We demonstrated that aging increases senescence-associated -galactosidase activity (SA--Gal) after vascular injury and the subsequent neointimal formation (neointima-to-media ratio: 0.8 Ϯ 0.2 vs. 0.54 Ϯ 0.15) in rats. We found that senescent cells (SA--Gal ϩ p21 ϩ ) were scattered throughout the media and adventitia of the vascular wall at day 7 after injury and reached their maximum number at day 14. However, senescent cells only persisted in the injured arteries of aged animals until day 30. No senescent cells were observed in the noninjured, contralateral artery. Interestingly, vascular senescent cells accumulated genomic 8-oxo-7,8-dihydrodeoxyguanine, indicating that these cells were under intense oxidative stress. To demonstrate whether senescence worsens intimal hyperplasia after injury, we seeded matrigel-embedded senescent and nonsenescent vascular smooth muscle cells around injured vessels. The neointima was thicker in arteries treated with senescent cells with respect to those that received normal cells (neointima-to-media ratio: 0.41 Ϯ 0.105 vs. 0.26 Ϯ 0.04). In conclusion, these results demonstrate that vascular senescence is not only a consequence of postinjury oxidative stress but is also a worsening factor for neointimal development in the aging vasculature. vascular injury; aging; neointima; vascular smooth muscle cells THE MECHANISM BY WHICH AGING exaggerates neointima formation after vascular injury has, so far, remained elusive (40, 42). It is known that aging alters vascular physiology (3) and arterial response to oxidative stress and injury (6, 35). One of the physiological changes that aging promotes, senescence, has recently been found to be involved in the development of cardiovascular diseases (14, 29 -31). During senescence, cells undergo changes in morphology, physiology, and gene expression and permanently cease to proliferate but remain metabolically active for a long period of time (17,19,22,41). A variety of physiological stimuli can provoke a cell to enter senescence. A few examples include telomere shortening (8, 39), oxidative stress (9, 12, 13), and activation of oncogenes (2,32,33).Experimental evidences suggest the contribution of senescent cells to the development of vascular proliferative diseases. Human atherosclerotic plaques showed abundance of SA-- (26), and fibroblasts (7) produce de novo growth factors that may promote nearby cell growth and inflammation. Despite of all of these evidences, the role of senescence in neointimal formation has remained poorly understood. Herein, we investigate the role of senescence in postinjury neointimal formation using the rat model of arterial balloon injury. We have found that aging exacerbates o...