zombie cell

plural zombie cells

1. informalbiologyA senescent cell, which avoids programmed cell death (apoptosis) and may damage other cells (including causing them to become senescent) by secretions associated with senescence-associated secretory phenotype.

   2022, Louann Brizendine, The Upgrade: How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond, Penguin Random House (Harmony Books), unnumbered page, Without restful sleep, they can't do their job of balancing debris and inflammation, and that can lead to the emergence of zombie cells.

   2 more examples

   Senescent cells are often referred to as "zombie cells," because even though they should be dead, they refuse to die. In the petri dish and in frozen, thinly sliced tissue sections, we can stain zombie cells blue because they make a rare enzyme called beta-galactosidase, and when we do that, they light up clearly.

   2019, David A. Sinclair, Matthew D. LaPlante, Lifespan, Simon & Schuster, page 150

   Known as senolytic therapies, these drugs destroy the inflammation-producing zombie cells believed to be one of the causes of aging.

   2020, Peter H. Diamandis, Steven Kotler, The Future Is Faster Than You Think, Simon & Schuster, page 175