Department of Chemistry and the Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, 3115 Merryfield Row, San Diego, CA 92121, USA.
Messenger RNA levels were measured in actively dividing fibroblasts isolated from young, middle-age, and old-age humans and humans with progeria, a rare genetic disorder characterized by accelerated aging. Genes whose expression is associated with age-related phenotypes and diseases were identified. The data also suggest that an underlying mechanism of the aging process involves increasing errors in the mitotic machinery of dividing cells in the postreproductive stage of life. We propose that this dysfunction leads to chromosomal pathologies that result in misregulation of genes involved in the aging process.