Progerin is the malformed version of LMNA, a protein vital to the structure of the cell nucleus. It is the cause of progeria, a rare condition that has the superficial appearance of greatly accelerated aging. It isn't aging, however, but rather an enormous burden of cellular damage and dysfunction resulting from structural issues in the cell nucleus that affect near all forms of function. In normal aging, there is also an enormous burden of damage and dysfunction, but this arises from a completely different mix of issues. Some of the end results, such as cardiovascular disease, are somewhat similar, but one can't compare the two if interested in first causes.

In the case of patients with progeria, the LMNA gene is mutated, resulting in large amounts of progerin. One of the interesting observations made over the past decade is that some tiny fraction of LMNA is malformed in older people without progeria, however, and it has been suggested that this may contribute to the aging progress. As for many such mechanisms, the question is whether or not its contribution is significant in comparison to that resulting from the various other forms of disarray in aging tissues. That question has not been resolved. The easiest way to do so would be to find an efficient way to remove or block the activity of all progerin and observe the results, but that has yet to take place.

In the open access paper noted here, researchers report on the interesting observation that overweight individuals have higher levels of progerin. Being overweight does in fact accelerate most of the processes of aging. Visceral fat tissue is metabolically active, and generates chronic inflammation through a range of different mechanisms, from increased numbers of senescent cells through to inappropriate signaling on the part of normal fat cells. Inflammation drives the progression of many forms of age-related disease. Again we might ask the question: given this sizable contribution, is the presence of progerin in the observed amounts significant? Answers will remain speculative until such time as the progerin can be removed.

High Body Mass Index is Associated with Elevated Blood Levels of Progerin mRNA