In a nutshell, this is why research into so-called accelerated aging conditions may be relevant to longevity science: "One of the many debated topics in ageing research is whether progeroid syndromes are really accelerated forms of human ageing. The answer requires a better understanding of the normal ageing process and the molecular pathology underlying these rare diseases. Exciting recent findings regarding a severe human progeria, Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, have implicated molecular changes that are also linked to normal ageing, such as genome instability, telomere attrition, premature senescence and defective stem cell homeostasis in disease development. These observations, coupled with genetic studies of longevity, lead to a hypothesis whereby progeria syndromes accelerate a subset of the pathological changes that together drive the normal ageing process." This same viewpoint - that each of the accelerated aging conditions represents a different facet of normal aging run wild - holds up for well other conditions, such as Werner syndrome, given the evidence amassed to date.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20651707

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