A single short reprogramming early in life initiates and propagates an epigenetically related mechanism improving fitness and promoting an increased healthy lifespan.

Recent advances in cell reprogramming showed that OSKM induction is able to improve cell physiology in vitro and in vivo. Here, we show that a single short reprogramming induction is sufficient to prevent musculoskeletal functions deterioration of mice, when applied in early life. In addition, in old age, treated mice have improved tissue structures in kidney, spleen, skin, and lung, with an increased lifespan of 15% associated with organ-specific differential age-related DNA methylation signatures rejuvenated by the treatment. Altogether, our results indicate that a single short reprogramming early in life might initiate and propagate an epigenetically related mechanism to promote a healthy lifespan.

iPSCs as a major opportunity to understand and cure age-related diseases.

Cellular senescence plays an important role in the process of aging and is often associated with age-related diseases. Senescence was originally considered as a barrier to cell reprogramming, however we developed a strategy to overcome this hurdle and derive induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from senescent cells and cells from centenarians. Furthermore we showed that the newly generated iPSCs could be re-differentiated into fully rejuvenated cells. That has increased the known beneficial properties of iPSCs to include them as a tool to model age-related diseases or even to cure them through cell therapy. In this review, we describe the hallmarks of cellular senescence before presenting how we reprogrammed aged and senescent cells into iPSCs and obtained rejuvenated re-differentiated cells. Finally, we take an interest in the way iPSCs can be used to understand and cure age-related diseases and we present their advantages for patient-specific therapy.