# Hayflick limit

The Hayflick limit is the most times a normal human body cell can divide in culture, typically 40 to 60 times, before it stops and enters replicative senescence. Leonard Hayflick discovered it in 1961. The mechanism is progressive telomere shortening: a cell's telomeres get a little shorter with each division, like a counter ticking down in your cells. The limit showed that aging has a built-in, cell-level component. It remains a foundational idea linking cell division, telomere biology, and the aging of the whole organism.

## Sources

- Hayflick L, Moorhead PS. (1961). The serial cultivation of human diploid cell strains. Experimental Cell Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/0014-4827(61)90192-6

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