Progeroid Syndrome With Signs of Autophagy Dysfunction in the Naked Mole Rat ()

The naked mole rat is considered a unique non-aging animal species and is widely used in laboratories to study lifespan biology. Previously, our group was the first to describe a new fatal disease of the naked mole rat, called "idiopathic cachexia". A detailed study of pathological changes in the organs of diseased animals together with data on changes in gene expression allows us to interpret this disease as a very specific variant of accelerated aging (progeroid syndrome or progeria) in these animals. Signs of the disease include cachexia, cataracts, lipofuscinosis and the appearance of amyloid bodies (corpora amylacea) in the brain, severe degeneration of myocardial cells, fatty degeneration and generalized lipofuscinosis of the liver and kidneys with signatures of dysfunction of autophagy processes in these organs. Further study is needed to elucidate the mechanism of development of this disease in animals with negligible aging, such as naked mole rats, and may have implications for understanding the mechanisms of aging and lifespan extension.