Human diploid fibroblasts undergo replicative senescence predominantly because of arrest at the G1/S boundary of the cell cycle. Senescent arrest resembles a process of terminal differentiation that appears to involve repression of proliferation-promoting genes with reciprocal new expression of antiproliferative genes, although post-transcriptional factors may also be involved. Identification of participating genes and clarification of their mechanisms of action will help to elucidate the universal cellular decline of biological aging and an important obverse manifestation, the rare escape of cells from senescence leading to immortalization and oncogenesis.