Occurence and expansion of trisomy 7 in a fibroblast strain from a centenarian individual.

We describe the presence of metaphases with non-random gain of one or two chromosomes in a skin fibroblast strain derived from a centenarian individual. The extra elements were chromosomes 7, X, and 18, and, among these, the most frequent was a 7. During in vitro propagation +7 cells seemed to be stable and overrode the diploid ones. After prolonged growth in culture, the cell population displayed the typical senescence signs. Our findings confirm the proneness to aneuploidy in cells from aged individuals and indicate that, while the presence of a trisomic 7 may confer a selective advantage to cells grown in vitro, it does not seem to prevent cellular senescence.