Editorial|Volume 16, Issue 17|pp 12105—12107

The silent protector: Nucleoporin93’s role in vascular health

Julia Michalkiewicz^1,², Tung D. Nguyen^1,², Monica Y. Lee^1,²

¹Department of Physiology and Biophysics, The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
²The Center for Cardiovascular Research, The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60612, USA

Received: July 22, 2024Published: August 21, 2024

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.206097

Copyright: © 2024 Michalkiewicz et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Nuclear envelope proteins have recently gained traction as novel regulators of endothelial and vascular function. Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) stand as one of the largest protein complexes found at the nuclear envelope yet the role of component NPC proteins (i.e., nucleoporins) in vascular health remains unclear. In the issue of Aging Cell, Nguyen et al. (2024) identify Nucleoporin93, a major structural protein of the NPC, as an indispensable player in endothelial protection. This discovery raises the possibility that endothelial NPCs are susceptible to risk factors for consequent vascular disease.