Molecular changes associated with spinal cord aging.

GeroScience
Katarzyna M PiekarzHolly Van Remmen

Abstract

Age-related muscle weakness and loss of muscle mass (sarcopenia) is a universal problem in the elderly. Our previous studies indicate that alpha motor neurons (α-MNs) play a critical role in this process. The goal of the current study is to uncover changes in the aging spinal cord that contribute to loss of innervation and the downstream degenerative processes that occur in skeletal muscle. The number of α-MNs is decreased in the spinal cord of wildtype mice during aging, beginning in middle age and reaching a 41% loss by 27 months of age. There is evidence for age-related loss of myelin and mild inflammation, including astrocyte and microglia activation and an increase in levels of sICAM-1. We identified changes in metabolites consistent with compromised neuronal viability, such as reduced levels of N-acetyl-aspartate. Cleaved caspase-3 is more abundant in spinal cord from old mice, suggesting that apoptosis contributes to neuronal loss. RNA-seq analysis revealed changes in the expression of a number of genes in spinal cord from old mice, in particular genes encoding extracellular matrix components (ECM) and a 172-fold increase in MMP-12 expression. Furthermore, blood-spinal cord barrier (BSCB) permeability is increased in old...Continue Reading

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Citations

Feb 28, 2021·Ageing Research Reviews·Virenkumar A Pandya, Rickie Patani

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
RNA-seq
Profiler
PCA
electron microscopy
electron micrography
protein array

Software Mentioned

RStudio
pheatmap
MIDA
Nikon NIS - Elements Advanced Research
ImageJ
Fastmap
Mathematica
Graphpad Prism

Related Concepts

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Apoptosis

Apoptosis is a specific process that leads to programmed cell death through the activation of an evolutionary conserved intracellular pathway leading to pathognomic cellular changes distinct from cellular necrosis