Project description:Many studies have addressed the effects of adult diet on gene expression in Drosophila melanogaster, however, little is known about how developmental diet influences adult gene expression, and how this interacts with adult dietary conditions. We found that developmental and adult diet exert largely independent effects on gene expression, with the effect of adult diet being considerably larger.We did find effects of developmental diet on the transcriptome that persist into middle and old-age. Most of the genes affected show no correlation with the observed phenotypic effects of larval diet on lifespan, however, in each sex we identified a cluster of ribosome, transcription, and translation-related genes whose expression was altered across the lifespan and negatively correlated with lifespan.
Project description:To further analyze the effect of aging and caloric restriction in the microRNA expression, we have employed microarray expression profiling as a discovery platform to identify differentially expressed microRNAs in middle-aged animals and the impact of caloric restriction in the microRNA expression profile. Subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue were extracted from 3 groups of mice: 3 month-old, 12 month-old fed ad libitum and 12 month-old fed with a caloric restricted diet. Comparisons between young and middle-aged animals in subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue, and between the 12 month old ad libitum and 12 month old caloric restricted diet in both adipose depots were made.
Project description:Recent studies show that acute injury to non-aged podocytes induces many similarities to healthy aged podocytes, such as decreased lifespan and health-span. Like healthy aged podocytes, injury to young mouse and human podocytes can induce a senescent phenotype. This begs the question if injury to young podocytes phenocopies a healthy middle-aged podocyte, and if the pathways underlying senescence and other injury responses overlap between injured young podocytes and healthy middle-aged podocytes. To address this knowledge gap we induced hypertension, a major cause of chronic kidney disease, in young mice (4m of age~20-year-old human) and in middle-aged mice (18m of age, ~55+ year old human) with deoxycorticosterone and high salt (DOCA) and compared outcomes to non-hypertensive healthy middle-aged mice. In both healthy middle-aged mice and in young mice with hypertension, the increase in age-related senescent genes p16 and p19, along with the stress-related senescent genes p21 and p53 were similar. Bulk RNA-sequencing of podocytes showed that the senescent associated secretory phenotype and individual genes from several aging gene sets were also similar between middle-aged mice and young mice with hypertension. Of the highest enriched Hallmark pathways in middle-aged podocytes, 95% were also enriched in young mice treated with DOCA. Gene set enrichment analysis of podocytes showed that 36 genes overlapped between middle-aged mice, and young and middle-aged mice given DOCA, while 119 genes identified were “DOCA-specific”. These results suggest that hypertension in young mice induces podocyte injury and an aging/senescent phenotype that is similar to the one of podocytes from healthy middle-aged mice.
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:To assess the transcriptional changes in different brain regions and spinal cord associated with aging and either a caloric restricted (CR) or ad libitum (AL) diet. cDNA microarray and quantitative PCR analyses were used to examine the transcriptomes of various neuronal tissues in young, middle aged and old mice. Mice of both genders were examined as well as the effects of their placement on either caloric restricted (CR) or ad libitum (AL) diets. To assess the transcriptional changes in different brain regions and spinal cord associated with aging and either a caloric restricted (CR) or ad libitum (AL) diet. cDNA microarray and quantitative PCR analyses were used to examine the transcriptomes of various neuronal tissues in young, middle aged and old mice. Mice of both genders were examined as well as the effects of their placement on either caloric restricted (CR) or ad libitum (AL) diets. Keywords: age-, gender-, and diet- comparison
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. Experiment Overall Design: No technical replicates; 14 biological replicates for 15-month-old mice, 9 biological replicates for 2-month-old mice. Whole hippocampus.
Project description:Substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) is highly sensitive to normal aging and selectively degenerates in Parkinson's disease. Until now, molecular mechanisms behind SNpc aging have not been fully investigated using high throughput techniques. Here, aging-associated early changes in transcriptome of SNpc were investigated comparing late middle-aged (18 months old) to young (2 months old) mice. Three age groups of C57 wild type mice were used in microarray analysis: young (2 months old), middle aged (10 months old), and late-middle aged (18 months old) mice. Four replicates were included in each age group and each replicate was pooled from 4 mice (4 mice/replicate x 4 replicates x 3 age groups). Total RNA was isolated from SNpc for hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.