Hoffmann, R. A wiki for the life sciences where authorship matters. Nature Genetics (2008)

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Fong, L.G. et al.

Fong, Ng, Meta, Coté, Yang, Stewart, Sullivan, Burghardt, Majumdar, Reue, Bergo, Young,

Heterozygosity for Lmna deficiency eliminates the progeria-like phenotypes in Zmpste24-deficient mice.

Zmpste24 is a metalloproteinase required for the processing of prelamin A to lamin A, a structural component of the nuclear lamina. Zmpste24 deficiency results in the accumulation of prelamin A within cells, a complete loss of mature lamin A, and misshapen nuclear envelopes. Zmpste24-deficient ( Zmpste24(-/-)) mice exhibit retarded growth, alopecia, micrognathia, dental abnormalities, osteolytic lesions in bones, and osteoporosis, which are phenotypes shared with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, a human disease caused by the synthesis of a mutant prelamin A that cannot undergo processing to lamin A. Zmpste24(-/-) mice also develop muscle weakness. We hypothesized that prelamin A might be toxic and that its accumulation in Zmpste24(-/-) mice is responsible for all of the disease phenotypes. We further hypothesized that Zmpste24(-/-) mice with half-normal levels of prelamin A ( Zmpste24(-/-) mice with one Lmna knockout allele) would be subjected to less toxicity and be protected from disease. Thus, we bred and analyzed Zmpste24(-/-)Lmna(+/-) mice. As expected, prelamin A levels in Zmpste24(-/-)Lmna(+/-) cells were significantly reduced. Zmpste24(-/-)Lmna(+/-) mice were entirely normal, lacking all disease phenotypes, and misshapen nuclei were less frequent in Zmpste24(-/-)Lmna(+/-) cells than in Zmpste24(-/-) cells. These data suggest that prelamin A is toxic and that reducing its levels by as little as 50% provides striking protection from disease.[1]

References

Heterozygosity for Lmna deficiency eliminates the progeria-like phenotypes in Zmpste24-deficient mice. Fong, L.G., Ng, J.K., Meta, M., Coté, N., Yang, S.H., Stewart, C.L., Sullivan, T., Burghardt, A., Majumdar, S., Reue, K., Bergo, M.O., Young, S.G. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. (2004) [Pubmed]

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