Similar Datasets
Project description:Immune system aging contributes significantly to declining health with age. It is unknown to what extent human and mice immune systems go through similar age-related changes and whether there are conserved biomarkers of aging. We characterized age-related changes in the immune system of long (C57BL/6J) and short-lived (NZO/HILtJ) strains and compared them with blood-driven human aging signatures. Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), spleen cells and spleen-driven naive and memory CD8+ T cells were profiled using flow cytometry, RNA-seq and ATAC-seq from young (3 months) and old (18 months) mice. Pro-inflammatory myeloid genes were activated with age across strains and tissues, echoing human 'inflammaging' signatures. ATAC-seq footprinting analyses uncovered increased binding of pro-inflammatory transcription factors with age (e.g., AP1 complex, NFKB signaling pathway). Machine learning models identified inflammation, cytotoxic, and naive T cell derived genes to be strong signatures of immunosenescence. These data are publicly shared as a resource for immune aging (https://immune-aging.jax.org/mice).
2021-12-01 | GSE159795 | GEO
Project description:Immune system aging contributes significantly to declining health with age. It is unknown to what extent human and mice immune systems go through similar age-related changes and whether there are conserved biomarkers of aging. We characterized age-related changes in the immune system of long (C57BL/6J) and short-lived (NZO/HILtJ) strains and compared them with blood-driven human aging signatures. Peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), spleen cells and spleen-driven naive and memory CD8+ T cells were profiled using flow cytometry, RNA-seq and ATAC-seq from young (3 months) and old (18 months) mice. Pro-inflammatory myeloid genes were activated with age across strains and tissues, echoing human 'inflammaging' signatures. ATAC-seq footprinting analyses uncovered increased binding of pro-inflammatory transcription factors with age (e.g., AP1 complex, NFKB signaling pathway). Machine learning models identified inflammation, cytotoxic, and naive T cell derived genes to be strong signatures of immunosenescence. These data are publicly shared as a resource for immune aging (https://immune-aging.jax.org/mice).
2021-12-01 | GSE159794 | GEO
Project description:Age-related changes in blood and spleen-derived immune cells in long and short lived mice strains
| PRJNA670496 | ENA
Project description:Age-related changes in blood and spleen-derived immune cells in long and short lived mice strains [ATAC-seq]
| PRJNA670569 | ENA
Project description:Age-related changes in blood and spleen-derived immune cells in long and short lived mice strains [RNA-seq]
| PRJNA670570 | ENA
Project description:One of the biggest challenges to studying causes and effects of aging is identifying changes in cells that are related to senescence instead of simply the passing of chronological time. We investigated two populations of the longest living non-colonial metazoan, Arctica islandica, with lifespans that differed sixfolds. Of four investigated parameters (nucleic acid oxidation, protein oxidation, lipid oxidation, and protein instability), only nucleic acid oxidation increased with age and correlated with relative lifespan. Nucleic acid oxidation levels increased significantly faster and were significantly higher in the shorter-lived than the longer-lived population. In contrast, neither protein oxidation, lipid oxidation, nor protein stability changed over time. Protein resistance to unfolding stress when treated with urea was significantly lower overall in the shorter-lived population, and lipid peroxidation levels were higher in the longer-lived population. With the exception of nucleic acid oxidation, damage levels of A. islandica do not change with age, indicating excellent cellular maintenance in both populations. Since correlations between nucleic acid oxidation and age have also been shown previously in other organisms, and nucleic acid oxidation accumulation rate correlates with relative age in both investigated populations, nucleic acid oxidation may reflect intrinsic aging mechanisms.
| S-EPMC5005836 | biostudies-other
Project description:Studies of model animals like mice and rats have led to great advances in our understanding of the process of tumorigenesis, but this line of study has less to offer for understanding the mechanisms of cancer resistance. Increasing the diversity of nonmodel species from the perspective of molecular mechanisms of natural cancer resistance can lead to new insights into the evolution of protective mechanisms against neoplastic processes and to a wider understanding of natural cancer defense mechanisms. Such knowledge could then eventually be harnessed for the development of human cancer therapies. We suggest here that seabirds are promising, albeit currently completely ignored candidates for studying cancer defense mechanisms, as they have a longer maximum life span than expected from their body size and rates of energy metabolism and may have thus evolved mechanisms to limit neoplasia progression, especially at older ages. We here apply a novel, intraspecific approach of comparing old and young seabirds for improving our understanding of aging and neoplastic processes in natural settings. We used the long-lived common gulls (Larus canus) for studying the age-related pattern of expression of cancer-related genes, based on transcriptome analysis and databases of orthologues of human cancer genes. The analysis of differently expressed cancer-related genes between young and old gulls indicated that similarly to humans, age is potentially affecting cancer risk in this species. Out of eleven differentially expressed cancer-related genes between the groups, three were likely artifactually linked to cancer. The remaining eight were downregulated in old gulls compared to young ones. The downregulation of five of them could be interpreted as a mechanism suppressing neoplasia risk and three as increasing the risk. Based on these results, we suggest that old gulls differ from young ones both from the aspect of cancer susceptibility and tumor suppression at the genetic level.
| S-EPMC7428815 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The red sea urchin, Mesocentrotus franciscanus, is one the earth’s longest-lived animals, reported to live more than 100 years with indeterminate growth, life-long reproduction and no increase in mortality rate with age. To explore the idea that transcriptional stability is a key determinant of longevity and negligible senescence, age-related gene expression was examined in three tissues of the red sea urchin (Aristotle’s lantern muscle, esophagus and radial nerve cord). Genome-wide transcriptional profiling using RNA-Seq revealed remarkable stability in muscle and esophagus with very few age-related changes in gene expression. In contrast, expression of more than 900 genes was significantly altered with age in radial nerve cord including genes involved in nerve function, signaling, metabolism, cytoskeleton, transcriptional regulation and chromatin modification. Notably, there was an upregulation in expression of genes involved in synaptogenesis and axonogenesis suggesting enhanced nervous system activity with age. Among the signaling pathways affected by age, there was a downregulation in expression of key components of the mTOR signaling pathway and an upregulation of negative regulators of this pathway. This was accompanied by a reduction in expression of genes involved in protein synthesis and mitochondrial function and an increase in expression of genes that promote autophagy. Downregulation of the mTOR pathway together with the other observed changes reveals a unique age-related gene expression profile in the red sea urchin nervous system that may contribute to mitigation of the detrimental effects of aging in this long-lived animal.
2020-06-08 | GSE136352 | GEO
Project description:A crucial problem for every organism is how to allocate energy between competing life-history components. The optimal allocation decision is often state-dependent and mediated by hormones. Here, we investigated how age, a major state variable affects individuals' hormonal response to a standardized stressor: a trait that may reflect allocation between self-maintenance and reproduction. We caught free-living house sparrows and measured their hormonal (corticosterone) response to capture stress in consecutive years. Using a long-term ringing dataset, we determined the age of the birds, and we partitioned the variation into within- and among-individual age components to investigate the effects of plasticity versus selection or gene flow, respectively, on the stress response. We found large among-individual variation in the birds' hormone profiles, but overall, birds responded less strongly to capture stress as they grew older. These results suggest that stress responsiveness is a plastic trait that may vary within individuals in an adaptive manner, and natural selection may act on the reaction norms producing optimal phenotypic response in the actual environment and life-history stage.
| S-EPMC4528442 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Aging in many animals is characterized by a failure to maintain tissue homeostasis and the loss of regenerative capacity. In this study, the ability to maintain tissue homeostasis and regenerative potential was investigated in sea urchins, a novel model to study longevity and negligible senescence. Sea urchins grow indeterminately, regenerate damaged appendages and reproduce throughout their lifespan and yet different species are reported to have very different life expectancies (ranging from 4 to more than 100 years). Quantitative analyses of cell proliferation and apoptosis indicated a low level of cell turnover in tissues of young and old sea urchins of species with different lifespans (Lytechinus variegatus, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus and Mesocentrotus franciscanus). The ability to regenerate damaged tissue was maintained with age as assessed by the regrowth of amputated spines and tube feet (motor and sensory appendages). Expression of genes involved in cell proliferation (pcna), telomere maintenance (tert) and multipotency (seawi and vasa) was maintained with age in somatic tissues. Immunolocalization of the Vasa protein to areas of the tube feet, spines, radial nerve, esophagus and a sub-population of circulating coelomocytes suggests the presence of multipotent cells that may play a role in normal tissue homeostasis and the regenerative potential of external appendages. The results indicate that regenerative potential was maintained with age regardless of lifespan, contrary to the expectation that shorter lived species would invest less in maintenance and repair.
| S-EPMC4933669 | biostudies-literature