Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : In adult organisms, specific stimuli of the proliferative activity of most renewing cell populations produce a burst of cells passing from G1-phase into S-phase (or from G2 into the mitotic phase for some cell types). As aging modifies some cell kinetic parameters, we investigated whether the timing and/or the magnitude of the response to specific stimuli is also changed. Our results suggest that, when exposed to a proper stimulus, the germinative cell population of the vaginal epithelium of castrated mice is able to increase its proliferative activity after the same time-lag and apparently to the same extent in old as in adult animals. This suggests that the capacity of renewing cell populations to respond to regulatory signals of their proliferative activity can be preserved with aging.