Plasminogen activator inhibitor 1--insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 cascade regulates stress-induced senescence

Cellular senescence is widely believed to play a key role in tumor suppression, but the molecular pathways that regulate senescence are only incompletely understood. By using a secretome proteomics approach, we identified insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP3) as a secreted mediator of breast cancer senescence upon chemotherapeutic drug treatment. The senescence-inducing activity of IGFBP3 is inhibited by tissue-type plasminogen activator-mediated proteolysis, which is counteracted by plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1), another secreted mediator of senescence. We demonstrate that IGFBP3 is a critical downstream target of PAI-1-induced senescence. These results suggest a role for an extracellular cascade of secreted proteins in the regulation of cellular senescence.