Transcriptomic analysis reveals a tissue-specific loss of identity during ageing and cancer.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Understanding changes in cell identity in cancer and ageing is of great importance. In this work, we analyzed how gene expression changes in human tissues are associated with tissue specificity during cancer and ageing using transcriptome data from TCGA and GTEx.

Results

We found significant downregulation of tissue-specific genes during ageing in 40% of the tissues analyzed, which suggests loss of tissue identity with age. For most cancer types, we have noted a consistent pattern of downregulation in genes that are specific to the tissue from which the tumor originated. Moreover, we observed in cancer an activation of genes not usually expressed in the tissue of origin as well as an upregulation of genes specific to other tissues. These patterns in cancer were

SUBMITTER: Dos Santos GA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10604446 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature