Project description:Enzastaurin is a Protein Kinase C-β selective inhibitor that was developed to treat cancers. Protein Kinase C-β is an important enzyme for a variety of neuronal functions; in particular, previous rodent studies have reported deficits in spatial and fear-conditioned learning and memory with lower levels of Protein Kinase C-β. Due to Enzastaurin’s mechanism of action, the present study investigated the consequences of Enzastaurin exposure on learning and memory in 12-month-old Fischer-344 male rats. Rats were treated daily with subcutaneous injections of either vehicle or Enzastaurin, and behaviorally tested using the spatial reference memory Morris Water Maze. Rats treated with Enzastaurin exhibited decreased overnight retention and poorer performance on the latter testing day, indicating a mild, but significant, memory impairment. There were no differences during the probe trial indicating that all animals were able to spatially localize the platform to the proper quadrant by the end of testing. RNA isolated from the hippocampus was analyzed using Next Generation Sequencing (Illumina). No statistically significant transcriptional differences were noted. Our findings suggest that acute Enzastaurin treatment can impair hippocampal-based learning and memory performance, with no effects on transcription in the hippocampus. We propose that care should be taken in future clinical trials that utilize Protein Kinase C-ß inhibitors, to monitor for possible cognitive effects, future research should examine if these effects are fully reversible.
Project description:Analysis of function of CD11c+ cells from middle-aged and young mice at gene level. This experiment provided insight into the different genes that plays roles in inflammation, immune response and mainly arachidonic acid cascade that are differentiall expressed in CD11c+ cells from middle aged and young mice. Total RNA was isolated from pulmonary CD11c cells (separated using magnetic beads) from middle-aged and young mice
Project description:Hippocampal tissues from young and middle-aged C57BL/6J mice were harvested at 4-hour intervals over two days and processed for proteomic analysis using label-free quantification.
Project description:Dietary fats have been shown to affect gut microbiota composition and aging gene transcription of middle-aged rats at a normal dose, but little is known about such an effect on gut barrier. In colon, the main component of mucus layer is Muc2, produced by the goblet cells. This study investigated the changes in Muc2 expression, goblet cells proliferation, TLRs and inflammatory cytokines in the colon of middle-aged rats. Proteome technology was applied to explore the possible molecular mechanisms. The results indicated that intake of fish oil at a normal dose downregulated colonic Muc2 expression, and this negative effect of fish oil probably involved the suppression of mucin glycosylation process.
Project description:We carried out a global survey of age-related changes in mRNA levels in the C57BL/6NIA mouse hippocampus and found a difference in the hippocampal gene expression profile between 2-month-old young mice and 15-month-old middle-aged mice correlated with an age-related cognitive deficit in hippocampal-based explicit memory formation. Middle-aged mice displayed a mild but specific deficit in spatial memory in the Morris water maze. Keywords: age comparison
Project description:Age-related methylation changes have been identified in various tissues and organisms, yet the underlying DNA methylation alterations in muscle aging process have not been clearly clarified. Whilst, many studies revealed that the structural and functional changes in skeletal muscle during aging process started from the mid-point of lifespan. In this study, we used pigs aged 0.5 year and 7 years, representing young and middle-aged periods. Using methylated DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing, we performed comprehensive genome-wide DNA methylation profiling for longissimus dorsi muscle in young and middle-aged pigs. We found more genes showed differently methylated in genebody. In details, 185 human ortholog genes contained DMRs that located in the promoter region, while 657 genes and 1063 genes with DMRs in gene body showed hypermethylation and hypomethylation in MA pigs, respectively. From the gene enrichment analysis, genebody hypermethylated genes showed significant enrichment for several molecular functions such as M-bM-^@M-^XGTPase regulator activityM-bM-^@M-^Y, M-bM-^@M-^XATP bindingM-bM-^@M-^Y and M-bM-^@M-^Xprotein kinase activityM-bM-^@M-^Y. Notably, genebody hypomethylated genes showed significant enrichment for various proteolysis and protein catabolic process. However, genes with DMR in their promoter region were not significantly enriched in any biology process. Proteolysis-associated genes, such as FOXO3 and FGFR1, showed different genebody methylation and mRNA expression level in two age groups, which may contribute to muscle atrophy during aging. Especially, other tumorigenesis-associated genes including GPI and GRB2, exhibited increasing mRNA level in middle-aged pigs, suggesting the possible higher risk of having cancer in human middle-aged period. Our results will serve as a valuable resource in aging studies, promote pig as a model organism for human aging research and accelerate the considerable development of comparative animal models in aging research. We collected the longissimus dorsi muscles tissue from Jinhua pigs which aged 0.5 year and seven years and study the genome-wide DNA methylation difference and the genome-wide gene expression profile between the two age periods. This submission represents transcriptome component of study.
Project description:Analysis of function of CD11c+ cells from middle-aged and young mice at gene level. This experiment provided insight into the different genes that plays roles in inflammation, immune response and mainly arachidonic acid cascade that are differentiall expressed in CD11c+ cells from middle aged and young mice.