Why an integrated view of gene expression studies on hematopoiesis in mouse aging is better than the sum of their parts

A standard approach to studying aging in mice typically involves the isolation of hematopoietic stem cells from two cohorts, namely young and old, from which total RNA is extracted, sequenced, and analyzed through R-based standard protocols. The lists of differentially expressed genes resulting from these analyses are usually interpreted with Gene Ontology classifications. Globally, the human population is aging, with an increased proportion of people in “old age” (over 60 years). This trend leads to a growing demand in aging research, stimulating studies in animal models such as mice, fish, and invertebrates. Recently, we published a research summary on the aging of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in C57BL/6 mice based on 12 gene expression d atasets. Here, I discuss in greater detail the added value of taking an integrated view, rather than considering each publication separately, to determine genes involved in aging. Considerable variation exists between lists of differentially expressed (DE) genes in HSCs, comparing young and old mice . This variation can result from factors such as inconsistent definitions of “young” and “old”, technical variations and variations between laboratory mouse strains. We previously demonstrated that the variation between gene lists could be circumvented by forming a unified list of DE genes— the “aging list”—with citation indexes attached. The most frequently detected DE genes [approximately 200 most cited, which we name...
Source: FEBS Letters - Category: Biochemistry Authors: Tags: Perspective Source Type: research