We previously reported that plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1) mRNA was present at higher steady-state levels in prematurely senescent fibroblasts derived from a subject with Werner syndrome (WS) compared to early passage (EP) fibroblasts from an age-matched normal subject (Murano et al., 1991, Mol. Cell. Biol. 11:3905-3914). To explore the generally of this phenomenon with respect to chronological age of donor (in vivo aging) and the late-passage (LP) or senescent phase of the fibroblast replicative lifespan, we assayed PAI-1 mRNA in cells and PAI-1 antigen in medium conditioned by 20 normal fibroblast strains at EP and LP and six WS strains during their curtailed replicative lifespans. The lowest accumulations of PAI-1 were found in medium conditioned by fetal and newborn cells with a shallow but progressive rise seen in postnatal cells from normal donors of increasing chronological age. With few exceptions, normal LP fibroblasts showed increased PAI-1 accumulations in medium compared to their EP counterparts. Conditioned medium from four of the six WS strains showed PAI-1 accumulations that were significantly higher than the media of any normal controls at EP and LP. PAI-1 mRNa levels were generally commensurate with the cumulative amount of PAI-1 in the medium but the frequent exceptions indicate that translational and post-translational mechanisms also regulate PAI-1 output. The augmentation in PAI-1 output of fibroblasts as a direct function of chronological age and during in vitro senescence suggests that PAI-1 may play an important role in the reduced capacity for wound healing and the increasing tendency to thrombogenesis and atherogenesis seen during biological aging and in particular in persons with Werner syndrome.