Gene expression changes with age in skin, adipose tissue, blood and brain

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious studies have demonstrated that gene expression levels change with age. These changes are hypothesized to influence the aging rate of an individual. We analyzed gene expression changes with age in abdominal skin, subcutaneous adipose tissue and lymphoblastoid cell lines in 856 female twins in the age range of 39-85 years. Additionally, we investigated genotypic variants involved in genotype-by-age interactions to understand how the genomic regulation of gene expression alters with age.ResultsUsing a linear mixed model, differential expression with age was identified in 1,672 genes in skin and 188 genes in adipose tissue. Only two genes expressed in lymphoblastoid cell lines showed significant changes with age. Genes significantly regulated by age were compared with expression profiles in 10 brain regions from 100 postmortem brains aged 16 to 83 years. We identified only one age-related gene common to the three tissues. There were 12 genes that showed differential expression with age in both skin and brain tissue and three common to adipose and brain tissues.ConclusionsSkin showed the most age-related gene expression changes of all the tissues investigated, with many of the genes being previously implicated in fatty acid metabolism, mitochondrial activity, cancer and splicing. A significant proportion of age-related changes in gene expression appear to be tissue-specific with only a few genes sharing an age effect in expression across tissues. More research is needed to improve our understanding of the genetic influences on aging and the relationship with age-related diseases.

Pathology of the Aging Brain in Domestic and Laboratory Animals, and Animal Models of Human Neurodegenerative Diseases

“…New world monkeys (Parvorder Platyrrhini). Agedependent Ab deposition has been reported in new world monkeys, such as common squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus), 27 common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), 55 and tamarins (Saguinus spp.). 48 New world monkeys are smaller than old world monkeys, have shorter life spans, and develop Ab deposits earlier.…”

“…55,110 While many biological changes may contribute to this degree of variability, antioxidant status and regenerative capability are probably the most important biological factors that determine the response of a certain tissue or organ to the aging process. 37,172,184 Brain is probably the most vulnerable tissue affected by aging because of its high oxygen requirement, low synthetic capacity of endogenous antioxidants, and limited regeneration capability.…”

Trimethylation of Lys36 on H3 restricts gene expression change during aging and impacts life span

“…Extensive studies in model organisms and human tissues have identified many genes that show age-dependent expression changes (Lee et al 1999;Zou et al 2000;Kayo et al 2001;Pletcher et al 2002;McCarroll et al 2004;Zahn et al 2006;Golden and Melov 2007;Budovskaya et al 2008;Hong et al 2008;de Magalhaes et al 2009;Glass et al 2013). These age-regulated genes generally participate in a wide variety of biological processes that are associated with age-dependent physiological changes.…”

Integration of ‘omics’ data in aging research: from biomarkers to systems biology

“…(2008) identified several thousand age‐related changes in gene expression in four different brain tissues. Later studies by different groups identified profound changes in the transcriptome with age in further tissues, such as skin, adipose tissue ( N  = 865) (Glass et al ., 2013) and kidney ( N  = 134) (Rodwell et al ., 2004). Most of these changes did not overlap in different tissues.…”