Single-cell Transcriptomic Profiling of the Aging Mouse Brain

Overview

Journal Nat Neurosci

Date 2019 Sep 26

PMID 31551601

Citations 320

Authors

Methodios Ximerakis

Scott L Lipnick

Brendan T Innes

Sean K Simmons

Xian Adiconis

Danielle Dionne

Brittany A Mayweather

Lan Nguyen

Zachary Niziolek

Ceren Ozek

Vincent L Butty

Ruth Isserlin

Sean M Buchanan

Stuart S Levine

Aviv Regev

Gary D Bader

Joshua Z Levin

Lee L Rubin

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The mammalian brain is complex, with multiple cell types performing a variety of diverse functions, but exactly how each cell type is affected in aging remains largely unknown. Here we performed a single-cell transcriptomic analysis of young and old mouse brains. We provide comprehensive datasets of aging-related genes, pathways and ligand-receptor interactions in nearly all brain cell types. Our analysis identified gene signatures that vary in a coordinated manner across cell types and gene sets that are regulated in a cell-type specific manner, even at times in opposite directions. These data reveal that aging, rather than inducing a universal program, drives a distinct transcriptional course in each cell population, and they highlight key molecular processes, including ribosome biogenesis, underlying brain aging. Overall, these large-scale datasets (accessible online at https://portals.broadinstitute.org/single_cell/study/aging-mouse-brain ) provide a resource for the neuroscience community that will facilitate additional discoveries directed towards understanding and modifying the aging process.

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