Hayflick's limit - number of times normal human cells divide

Value 50 unitless Range: ±10 unitless
Organism Human Homo sapiens
Reference Hayflick L. The limited in vitro lifetime of human diploid cell strains. Exp Cell Res. 1965 Mar37: 614-36. abstract & p.634 bottom paragraphPubMed ID14315085
Method p.634 bottom paragraph:"Cells of the same strain (human fetal lung), but with different “doubling potentials” (distinguished by one being male the other female), were mixed. Phase III in such mixed populations occurs at that time when the “youngest” cell component is expected to reach Phase III. The “older” component has no effect on the time at which Phase III is expected to take place in the “younger” component." (phase III is the final phase in a cell's life history)
Comments p.627 4th paragraph:"The finite lifetime of human diploid cell strains in vitro has been quantitatively examined and found to be related only indirectly to numbers of subcultivations at a particular split ratio. The effect is more precisely related to a finite number of cell doublings. Cloning experiments have led to the conclusion that the doubling potential is the same for each clonable cell in the population." p.634 bottom paragraph:"The time at which human diploid cell strains can be expected to cease dividing in vitro (Phase III) is not a function of the number of subcultivations but rather of the number of potential cell doublings. Each clonable cell within the population is endowed with the same doubling potential (50±10)." See Sydney Shall, Mortalization or reproductive sterility of animal cells in culture, in Perspectives on mammalian cell death. C. S. Potten (ed.). Oxford Scientific Publications, Oxford, 1987. P.198 bottom paragraph:"By contrast, the Hayflick limit seems to involve about 50 to 70 population doublings." See BNID 103697
Entered by Uri M
ID 105586