Project description:This study focused on transcription in the medial PFC (mPFC) as a function of age and cognition. Young and aged F344 rats were characterized on tasks, attentional set shift and spatial memory, which depend on the mPFC and hippocampus, respectively. Differences in transcription associated with age and cognitive function were examined using RNA sequencing to construct transcriptomic profiles for the mPFC, white matter, and region CA1 of the hippocampus. The results indicate regional differences in vulnerability to aging associated with increased expression of immune and defense response genes and a decline in synaptic and neural activity genes. Importantly, we provide evidence for region specific transcription related to behavior. In particular, expression of transcriptional regulators and neural activity-related immediate-early genes (IEGs) are increased in the mPFC of aged animals that exhibit delayed set shift behavior; relative to age-matched animals that exhibit set shift behavior similar to younger animals. The study contains 11 young and 20 aged rats for the mPFC and CA1 samples, which were used to investigate expression patterns associated with aging and behavior. White matter samples were used to investigate an age-related effect with 8 young and 9 aged rats.
Project description:In this study we used microarray analysis to reveal the gene expression profile of the hippocampal CA1 subregion, which was laser-capture microdissected one week after kainic acid (KA)-induced status epilepticus (SE) in postnatal day 21 (P21) rats. These rats are developmentally roughly comparable to juvenile children, and KA-induced SE leads to selective damage of hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons in this age group while saving neurons of the other sub-regions. We searched for alterations in the gene expression pattern during the early epileptogenetic phase, i.e. one week after SE, and compared the results with those of age-matched control rats. To detect specifically changes in the CA1 pyramidal neurons, we used the laser-capture microdissection technique that allows the precise isolation of the region of interest. The RNA of this region was isolated, amplified, and labeled, and then hybridized to Illumina RatRef-12 Expression BeadChip Arrays. The gene expression data generated from the microarray was first normalized by the guantile normalization method, and then filtered by using the empirical Bayes method, and the contrasts were created by using the Limma R/Bioconductor. Finally, the data was clustered by using the non-hierarchical K-means clustering for genes, and the pathway analysis was performed by âGene set testâ, which analyzes the statistical significance of a set of genes simultaneously ranked by p-value and generates the KEGG categories (Chipster manual). The Illumina microarray analysis with the Chipster software v1.1.0 (http://chipster.csc.fi; CSC, Espoo, Finland) generated a total of 1592 differently expressed genes in the CA1 subregion of KA-treated rats compared to control rats. Using the K-means method the genes were classified in 10 different clusters. The subsequent KEGG-test for the probe set over-representation analysis revealed the 15 significantly (p<0.05) changed KEGG-pathways in response to KA-treatment, e.g. oxidative phosphorylation (26 genes changed), and long-term potentiation (LTP; 18 genes changed). Some of the differentially expressed genes were also identified to be involved in Ca2+ homeostasis, gliosis, inflammation, and GABAergic transmission.
Project description:Male Sprague-Dawley rats were used to establish exhausted-exercise model by motorized rodent treadmill. Yu-Ping-Feng-San at doses of 2.18 g/kg was administrated by gavage before exercise training for 10 consecutive days. Quantitative proteomics was performed for assessing the related mechanism of Yu-Ping-Feng-San.
Project description:The aim of this study was to investigate whether the differences in memory decline associated with aging are a result of differences in gene expression. We first categorized age-unimpaired and age-impaired rats based on their performance in the Morris water maze, when compared to young rats. Then we isolated messenger RNA from the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus of each animal to interrogate Affymetrix RAE 230A rat genome microarrays. Supervised statistical analysis of the different groups of aged animals recognized 85 genes (p<0.005) that were significantly different in the dentate gyrus of aged rats that had learned the Morris water maze (MWM) paradigm when compared to learning impaired and a number of controls for stress, exercise and non-spatial learning. In addition, statistical analysis of the microarray data that included young and aged rats identified 1129 genes (p<0.005) that were differentially expressed between aged and young rats independent of behavior, but due to aging alone. Experiment Overall Design: a total of 80 samples were analyzed including aged and young rats for aged versus young comparisons. One chip was interrogated per animal. Supervised analysis of aged rat data (aged unimpaired (HID U) versus controls : HID I, VIS, YOKE, SIT includes 39 samples (intermediate learners were not included in the analysis). Controls include cage controls, yoke controls (no platform), visible platform controls.