The invention concerns methods and kits for determining the replicative senescence status of a cell, for identifying a cell culture which is suitable for therapeutic use, and for quantifying the reprogramming efficiency of induced pluripotent stem cells, wherein the methylation status of at least one of the CpG-dinucleotides within a region of about 50,000 bp upstream and/or downstream of at least one of the CpG-dinucleotides selected from the group consisting of GRM7-CpG-site #1, CASR-CpG-site #1, PRAMEF2-CpG-site #1, SELP-CpG- site #1, CASP14-CpG-site #1 and KRTAP13-3-CpG-site #1 for multiple corresponding DNA molecules is determined and compared to a reference methylation status.
METHYLATION SIGNATURE FOR REPLICATIVE SENESCENCE OF CELLS IN CULTURE