The Cell as Orchestra: Getting Blood Vessels Back in Tune in Progeria
In the orchestra of the cell, there is a tuner that muffles one important note far too aggressively. That note is a chemical mark on the protein that packages DNA, and once it disappears, the cell starts to play out of tune: it repairs its genes less accurately and ages faster. In Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, a rare disease of accelerated aging, blood vessel cells lose exactly this mark.