Oncotarget3475www.impactjournals.com/oncotarget

Aging is a tremendously complex biological process, in which several dys-regulated cellular pathways converge, such as alterations in the nuclear lamina which contribute to genomic instability, one of the hallmarks of aging [1]. The nuclear lamina is mainly composed of A and B-type lamins, type V intermediate filaments which establish a network that functions as a structural scaffold for the cell nucleus. Lamins interact also with chromatin and transcription factors functioning in DNA synthesis and gene transcription, therefore controlling indispensable cellular processes such as cell proliferation and differentiation. Prelamin A is the first unprocessed product of the LMNA gene which undergoes several post-translational modifications before becoming mature lamin A, an essential component of nuclear lamina. Mutation