Several neurodegenerative diseases are caused by expansion of CAG triplet repeats, and, using a mouse model of human Huntington's disease, this study shows that this expansion occurs in mid-life and continues throughout life; furthermore, the expansion occurs in terminally differentiated cells. This is associated with oxidative damage, and deficiency in OGG1, a DNA repair enzyme, attenuates age-dependent repeat expansion — thus it seems that aberrant repair of oxidative damage is the basis for this disease.
- Irina V. Kovtun
- Yuan Liu
- Cynthia T. McMurray
