Timing and cell specificity of senescence drives postnatal lung development and injury

Abstract

Senescence causes age-related diseases and stress-related injury, but it is also physiologically essential during development. Here, Yao et al. show that programmed senescence in mesenchymal cells orchestrates postnatal lung development and that neonatal hyperoxia can induce senescence, particularly in type II, Pdgfra+ mesenchymal and immune cells, during the alveolar stage, resulting in lung injury.