DNA Repair and Cell Differentiation - Does Getting Older Means Getting Wiser as Well?

The cell DNA needs to be constantly repaired in order to preserve the genome integrity and to ensure the fidelity of transcription. It's been known that a marked difference exists between rates of certain types of repair of transcribed genes and non-transcribed DNA. Recently there's been accumulating evidence that state of terminal differentiation of the cell reflects on the NER profile, attenuating ubiquitous repair in all genome regions and focusing on transcription-dependent repair. This may be viewed not as a differentiation-associated defect but, rather, as a compromise with the integrity of the genome in its bulk for the sake of exclusive repair of regions where active transcription is under way.