An aging protein?
The same protein that, when defective, causes a premature-aging disease may also play a role in normal aging.
Children with Hutchinson Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) have maladies of aging, such as baldness and arthritis.
Yet “it hasn’t been clear at the molecular level that this … has anything to do with aging,” says Tom Misteli of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Md.
Misteli and his NCI coworker Paola Scaffidi examined skin cells taken from HGPS patients and elderly people and found the samples to have similar defects.