Progeria Main Page

                           GENETICS

Progeria is thought to be caused by a tiny mutation in a zygotes DNA durring conception.  It is 'A one- letter typo in the billions of letters that make up the chromosomal book .' according to the Progeria Research Foundation.

                      Progeria is not caused by a defective DNA repair, but   the protein,  Lamin A  is one of the main factors that causes the rare genetic disorder.Progeria is a dominant trait that develops durring cell division. The LMNA gene replaces Cytosine with Thymine creating an unusable form of the protein Lamin A. Thus causeing a premature proggression of age in the forming Zygote.

                          Progeria Diagnoses and symptoms

                     Progeria cannot be diagnosed in a child untill aproximetly 9-1o months of age. Almost all babies born with Progeria appear as normal health babies when born. Progeria can be diagnosed throgh a genetic test.

   The appearence of a child with progeria can vary greatly. However, most of the physical symptoms in a progerian child include; wrinkeld skin, small birdlike noses, balding of the hair and thinning of the skin.

  Children with progeria are reported to have a normal level of intelligence. However there voices do tend to be very higher in pitch compared to others.