Single-Cell Transcriptomics of Peripheral Blood in the Aging Mouse

01-16-2023

“Here, we profiled 14588 single cells from the mouse blood and assessed the differences between young and old mice.”

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BUFFALO, NY- January 16, 2023 – A new research paper was published on the cover of Aging (listed as "Aging (Albany NY)" by Medline/PubMed and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 1, entitled, “Single-cell transcriptomics of peripheral blood in the aging mouse.”

Compositional and transcriptional changes in the hematopoietic system have been used as biomarkers of immunosenescence and aging. In this new study, researchers Yee Voan Teo, Samuel J. Hinthorn, Ashley E. Webb, and Nicola Neretti from Brown University used single-cell RNA-sequencing to study the aging peripheral blood in mice and characterize the changes in cell-type composition and transcriptional profiles associated with age.

“Here, we applied scRNA-seq on young and old mice to dissect the transcriptional and cell composition changes of all cell types in the peripheral blood with age.”

The team identified 17 clusters from a total of 14,588 single cells. They detected a general upregulation of antigen processing and presentation and chemokine signaling pathways and a downregulation of genes involved in ribosome pathways with age. In old peripheral blood, the researchers also observed an increased percentage of cells expressing senescence markers (Cdkn1a, and Cdkn2a). In addition, a cluster of activated T cells exclusively found in old blood was detected, with lower expression of Cd28 and higher expression of Bcl2 and Cdkn2a, suggesting that the cells are senescent and resistant to apoptosis.

“Finally, targeting senescent cells using genetic approaches has been shown to ameliorate the aging phenotype [34, 35]. More recently, senolytics drugs are being identified or developed to target apoptotic pathways because senescent cells are known to be apoptosis-resistant [34]. Therefore, the Bcl2+ old T cells that we identified in old mice can potentially be targeted pharmacologically to ameliorate the phenotypes associated with the aging of the immune system.”

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.204471 

Corresponding Author: Nicola Neretti - nicola_neretti@brown.edu 

Keywords: aging, single-cell transcriptomics, senescence, peripheral blood

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About Aging-US:

Aging publishes research papers in all fields of aging research including but not limited, aging from yeast to mammals, cellular senescence, age-related diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s diseases and their prevention and treatment, anti-aging strategies and drug development and especially the role of signal transduction pathways such as mTOR in aging and potential approaches to modulate these signaling pathways to extend lifespan. The journal aims to promote treatment of age-related diseases by slowing down aging, validation of anti-aging drugs by treating age-related diseases, prevention of cancer by inhibiting aging. Cancer and COVID-19 are age-related diseases.

Aging is indexed by PubMed/Medline (abbreviated as “Aging (Albany NY)”), PubMed CentralWeb of Science: Science Citation Index Expanded (abbreviated as “Aging‐US” and listed in the Cell Biology and Geriatrics & Gerontology categories), Scopus (abbreviated as “Aging” and listed in the Cell Biology and Aging categories), Biological Abstracts, BIOSIS Previews, EMBASE, META (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative) (2018-2022), and Dimensions (Digital Science).

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