Hayflick limit

Hayflick limit

The Hayflick limit refers to the maximum number of times a laboratory cultured cell can divide before it dies, which is typically around 50-70 times and can be obtained from a decay curve. This limit does not apply to immortal stem cells or cancer cells.From: Biotechnology Fundamentals [2020], A topic for integrated teaching of mathematics and biology: the parabola of chaos in tumour cell aneuploidy [2022], Biology for Engineers [2019]

Biological Responses in Context

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Published in Arthur T. Johnson, Biology for Engineers, 2019

Arthur T. Johnson

As the cell divides again and again, this telomere is shortened, and, when it is gone completely, the cell line dies (Figure 6.18.1). Laboratory cultured cells, not immortal stem cells or cancer cells, can divide about 50–70 times before they die; this number of divisions is known as the Hayflick Limit (Hooper, 2011). Prokaryotes avoid this problem by containing DNA in a circular macromolecule that has no ends.

A topic for integrated teaching of mathematics and biology: the parabola of chaos in tumour cell aneuploidy

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Published in International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 2022

Dino G. Salinas, Mauricio O. Gallardo

The number of growth cycles for a cell type has a limit, known as the Hayflick limit, which can be obtained from a decay curve . According to Equation (4), the Hayflick limit decreases with greater aneuploidy (calculated according to Equation (2)), as occurs for Down syndrome (Schneider & Epstein, 1972) and some premature ageing syndromes (Mukherjee & Costello, 1998). Figure 4 shows calculations for human and mouse primary fetal cells. The predictions of the Hayflick limit and the dynamics are very accurate for each case when appropriate values are selected for the initial condition and the parameter (Rasnick, 2000).

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Biological Responses in Context

A topic for integrated teaching of mathematics and biology: the parabola of chaos in tumour cell aneuploidy