GSE212336
A spatiotemporal map of the mouse brain reveals white matter tracts as vulnerable foci of aging
Aging is a key driver of cognitive decline and the predominant risk factor for several neurodegenerative diseases. Recent behavioral studies as well as structural and functional MRI data suggest that aging does not impact the brain in a uniform manner but follows region- and age-specific trajectories. Yet so far, quantitative analyses of the molecular dynamics in the aging brain have been limited to few regions at low temporal resolution. Here we performed spatiotemporal RNA-seq of the brain across the adult mouse lifespan, encompassing 847 samples dissected from 15 regions spanning 7 age groups. We reveal that aging impacts gene expression in a region-dependent manner, varying in timing, magnitude and biological function. Overall design: mRNA-seq data of 15 distinct brain regions sampled from 59 C57BL/6JN mice ( n = 3-6 males per age; aged 3, 12, 15, 18, 21, 26 and 28 months; n = 5 females per age; aged 3, 12, 15, 18 and 21 months; all C57BL/6JN strain) were generated by deep sequencing using Illumina sequencing.