AGEMAP: a gene expression database for aging in mice.
We present the AGEMAP (Atlas of Gene Expression in Mouse Aging Project) gene expression database, which is a resource that catalogs changes in gene expression as a function of age in mice. The AGEMAP database includes expression changes for 8,932 genes in 16 tissues as a function of age. We found great heterogeneity in the amount of transcriptional changes with age in different tissues. Some tissues displayed large transcriptional differences in old mice, suggesting that these tissues may contribute strongly to organismal decline. Other tissues showed few or no changes in expression with age, indicating strong levels of homeostasis throughout life. Based on the pattern of age-related transcriptional changes, we found that tissues could be classified into one of three aging processes: (1) a pattern common to neural tissues, (2) a pattern for vascular tissues, and (3) a pattern for steroid-responsive tissues. We observed that different tissues age in a coordinated fashion in individual mice, such that certain mice exhibit rapid aging, whereas others exhibit slow aging for multiple tissues. Finally, we compared the transcriptional profiles for aging in mice to those from humans, flies, and worms. We found that genes involved in the electron transport chain show common age regulation in all four species, indicating that these genes may be exceptionally good markers of aging. However, we saw no overall correlation of age regulation between mice and humans, suggesting that aging processes in mice and humans may be fundamentally different.
Zahn
Jacob M
JM
Department of Developmental Biology, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, California, United States of America.
Poosala
Suresh
S
Owen
Art B
AB
Ingram
Donald K
DK
Lustig
Ana
A
Carter
Arnell
A
Weeraratna
Ashani T
AT
Taub
Dennis D
DD
Gorospe
Myriam
M
Mazan-Mamczarz
Krystyna
K
Lakatta
Edward G
EG
Boheler
Kenneth R
KR
Xu
Xiangru
X
Mattson
Mark P
MP
Falco
Geppino
G
Ko
Minoru S H
MS
Schlessinger
David
D
Firman
Jeffrey
J
Kummerfeld
Sarah K
SK
Wood
William H
WH
Zonderman
Alan B
AB
Kim
Stuart K
SK
Becker
Kevin G
KG
D000375:Aging / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D004175:Diptera / Q000235:genetics; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006376:Helminths / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009928:Organ Specificity; D013045:Species Specificity