Semantic distinctions between "normal" aging, "pathological" aging (or age-related disease) and "premature" aging (otherwise known as segmental progeria) potentially confound important insights into the nature of each of the complex processes. Here we review a recent, unexpected discovery: the presence of longevity-associated characteristics typical of long-lived endocrine-mutant and dietary-restricted animals in short-lived progeroid mice. These data suggest that a subset of symptoms observed in premature aging, and possibly normal aging as well, may be indirect manifestations of a beneficial adaptive stress response to endogenous oxidative damage, rather than a detrimental result of the damage itself.

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doi.org/10.1016/j.mad.2006.11.011, hdl.handle.net/1765/64026
Mechanisms of Ageing and Development
Department of Molecular Genetics

van de Ven, M., Andressoo, J.-O., Holcomb, V., Hasty, P., Suh, Y., van Steeg, H., … Mitchell, J. (2007). Extended longevity mechanisms in short-lived progeroid mice: Identification of a preservative stress response associated with successful aging. Mechanisms of Ageing and Development, 128(1), 58–63. doi:10.1016/j.mad.2006.11.011