Explanted mammalian cells perform a limited number of cell division in vitro and than are arrested in a state known as replicative senescence. Such cells are irreversibly blocked, mostly in the G1 phase of cell cycle, and are no longer sensitive to growth factor stimulation. Thus replicative senescence is defined as a permanent and irreversible loss of replicative potential of cells. For this characteristic, replicative senescence seems to evolve to protect mammalian organism from cancer. However, senescence also contributes to aging. It seems to decrease with age of the cell donor and, as a form of cell senescence, is thought to underlie the aging process. Extensive evidence supports the idea that progressive telomere loss contributes to the phenomenon of cell senescence. Telomeres are repetitive structures of the sequence (TTAGGG)n at the ends of linear chromosomes. It has been shown that the average length of telomere repeats in human somatic cells decreases by 30∼200 bp with each cell division. It is generally believed that when telomeres reach a critical length, a signal is activated to initiate the senescent program. This has given rise to the hypothesis that telomeres act as mitotic clocks to regulate lifespan. One proposes that cumulative oxidative stress, mainly reactive oxygen species generated from mitochondria, may mainly cause telomere shortening, accelerating aging. Here, the biological importance and mechanism of replicative senescence were briefly reviewed. Also it was summarized that how oxidative stress affects replicative senescence and telomere shortening.