Sister chromatid exchanges and aging

Abstract
Although baseline levels of SCE appear to be similar in metaphase cells derived from young and old human skin fibroblast cultures, as significant decline in both MMC- and AAAF-induced sister chromatid exchanges was observed in the older cell populations. Considerable variation exists in the levels of MMC-induced SCE between individual cell cultures. However, parallel examination of several cell strains from young and old donors confirmed the decrease in mutagen-induced SCE frequencies in older cell populations.