Senescence-dependent regulation of type 1 plasminogen activator inhibitor in human vascular endothelial cells

Type 1 plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1) is the primary inhibitor plasminogen activator and has been found to be increased in a number of clinical conditions generally defined as prothrombotic. Since in aging and in atherosclerosis the changes observed in the endothelium resemble those of in vitro aged endothelial cells, we have examined the expression of PAI-1 in cells at different population doublings. In senescent endothelial cells, PAI-1 mRNA and protein are constitutively high, but uninducible by exogenous interleukin 1 alpha as well as by the phorbol ester TPA. Interestingly the increase of PAI-1 levels correlates with the upregulation of interleukin 1 alpha, which characterizes endothelial cell senescence. Since PAI-1 expression is not increased in young cells made nondividing by contact inhibition, we anticipate that PAI-1 expression can be used as an appropriate marker of endothelial senescence. Moreover, PAI-1 was not upregulated in senescent or in progeric human fibroblasts, which do not overexpress interleukin 1 alpha, thus suggesting that multiple pathways may exist to regulate aging of human fibroblasts and endothelial cells.