Premature Aging in Mice Deficient in DNA Repair and Transcription

✍ Scribed by de Boer, J.

• Book ID: 125508452
• Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 527 KB
• Volume: 296
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0036-8075
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1070174

✦ Synopsis

One of the factors postulated to drive the aging process is the accumulation of DNA damage. Here, we provide strong support for this hypothesis by describing studies of mice with a mutation in
XPD
, a gene encoding a DNA helicase that functions in both repair and transcription and that is mutated in the human disorder trichothiodystrophy (TTD). TTD mice were found to exhibit many symptoms of premature aging, including osteoporosis and kyphosis, osteosclerosis, early greying, cachexia, infertility, and reduced life-span. TTD mice carrying an additional mutation in
XPA
, which enhances the DNA repair defect, showed a greatly accelerated aging phenotype, which correlated with an increased cellular sensitivity to oxidative DNA damage. We hypothesize that aging in TTD mice is caused by unrepaired DNA damage that compromises transcription, leading to functional inactivation of critical genes and enhanced apoptosis.