Multidimensional informatic deconvolution defines gender-specific roles of hypothalamic GIT2 in aging trajectories

Publication date: Available online 28 September 2019Source: Mechanisms of Ageing and DevelopmentAuthor(s): Jaana Van Gastel, Huan Cai, Wei-Na Cong, Wayne Chadwick, Caitlin Daimon, Hanne Leysen, Jhana O. Hendrickx, Robin De Schepper, Laura Vangenechten, Jens Van Turnhout, Jasper Verswyvel, Kevin G. Becker, Yongqing Zhang, Elin Lehrmann, William H. Wood, Bronwen Martin, Stuart MaudsleyAbstractIn most species, females live longer than males. An understanding of this female longevity advantage will likely uncover novel anti-aging therapeutic targets. Here we investigated the transcriptomic responses in the hypothalamus – a key organ for somatic aging control – to the introduction of a simple aging-related molecular perturbation, i.e. GIT2 heterozygosity. Our previous work has demonstrated that GIT2 acts as a network controller of aging. A similar number of both total (1079-female, 1006-male) and gender-unique (577-female, 527-male) transcripts were significantly altered in response to GIT2 heterozygosity in early life-stage (2 month-old) mice. Despite a similar volume of transcriptomic disruption in females and males, a considerably stronger dataset coherency and functional annotation representation was observed for females. It was also evident that female mice possessed a greater resilience to pro-aging signaling pathways compared to males. Using a highly data-dependent natural language processing informatics pipeline, we identified novel functional data clusters that were c...

Source: Mechanisms of Ageing and Development - September 29, 2019 Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research