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Letter

Nature 437, 564-568 (22 September 2005) | doi:10.1038/nature04019; Received 19 May 2005; Accepted 20 July 2005; Published online 3 August 2005

Accelerated ageing in mice deficient in Zmpste24 protease is linked to p53 signalling activation

Ignacio Varela1,5, Juan Cadiñanos1,5, Alberto M. Pendás1, Ana Gutiérrez-Fernández1, Alicia R. Folgueras1, Luis M. Sánchez1, Zhongjun Zhou3,6, Francisco J. Rodríguez1, Colin L. Stewart4, José A Vega2, Karl Tryggvason3, José M. P. Freije1 & Carlos López-Otín1

  1. Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Facultad de Medicina, Instituto Universitario de Oncología, and
  2. Departamento de Morfología y Biología Celular, Universidad de Oviedo, 33006 Oviedo, Spain
  3. Division of Matrix Biology, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm S-17177, Sweden
  4. National Cancer Institute, Frederick, Maryland 21702, USA
  5. *These authors contributed equally to this work
  6. †Present address: Department of Biochemistry, Facult of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong

Correspondence to: Carlos López-Otín1 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to C.L.-O. (Email: clo@uniovi.es).

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Zmpste24 (also called FACE-1) is a metalloproteinase involved in the maturation of lamin A (Lmna), an essential component of the nuclear envelope1, 2, 3. Both Zmpste24- and Lmna-deficient mice exhibit profound nuclear architecture abnormalities and multiple histopathological defects that phenocopy an accelerated ageing process1, 2, 4, 5. Similarly, diverse human progeroid syndromes are caused by mutations in ZMPSTE24 or LMNA genes6, 7, 8, 9, 10. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying these devastating diseases, we have analysed the transcriptional alterations occurring in tissues from Zmpste24-deficient mice. We demonstrate that Zmpste24 deficiency elicits a stress signalling pathway that is evidenced by a marked upregulation of p53 target genes, and accompanied by a senescence phenotype at the cellular level and accelerated ageing at the organismal level. These phenotypes are largely rescued in Zmpste24-/-Lmna+/- mice and partially reversed in Zmpste24-/-p53-/- mice. These findings provide evidence for the existence of a checkpoint response activated by the nuclear abnormalities caused by prelamin A accumulation, and support the concept that hyperactivation of the tumour suppressor p53 may cause accelerated ageing11.