Cited by 1,247Single-cell and spatial transcriptomicsGenetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model OrganismsTelomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence

A single-cell transcriptomic atlas characterizes ageing tissues in the mouse

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The Tabula Muris Consortium, Almanzar, Nicole, Antony, Jane, Baghel, Ankit S., Bakerman, Isaac, Bansal, Ishita, Barres, Ben A., Beachy, Philip A. +127 more·2020·Nature

Abstract

Ageing is characterized by a progressive loss of physiological integrity, leading to impaired function and increased vulnerability to death 1. Despite rapid advances over recent years, many of the molecular and cellular processes that underlie the progressive loss of healthy physiology are poorly understood 2. To gain a better insight into these processes, here we generate a single-cell transcriptomic atlas across the lifespan of Mus musculus that includes data from 23 tissues and organs. We found cell-specific changes occurring across multiple cell types and organs, as well as age-related changes in the cellular composition of different organs. Using single-cell transcriptomic data, we assessed cell-type-specific manifestations of different hallmarks of ageing-such as senescence 3, genomic instability 4 and changes in the immune system 2. This transcriptomic atlas-which we denote Tabula Muris Senis, or 'Mouse Ageing Cell Atlas'-provides molecular information about how the most important hallmarks of ageing are reflected in a broad range of tissues and cell types.

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Crossref · 10.1038/s41586-020-2496-1

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  • All analyses were repeated in independent datasets from the same tissue, resulting in similar observations across tissues.

    “All analyses were repeated in independent datasets from the same tissue, resulting in similar observations across tissues (muscle, bone, and liver were taken from the Tabula Muris Senis (Almanzar et al, 2020)) (Figs. EV3–EV5).”

    From Distinct senotypes in p16- and p21-positive cells across human and mouse aging tissues (2025) · cites this paper as Almanzar et al, 2020

    The citation identifies Tabula Muris Senis as the source of the datasets, not as evidence that the citing authors repeated their analyses or obtained similar observations. The paper lists limb muscle and liver among its sampled tissues, but lists bone marrow—not bone tissue (Abstract; Experimental Procedures, “Mice and organ collection”; pages unavailable). (LLM, conf=0.85)

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  • Genes upregulated with age in neurons, especially inhibitory neurons, were enriched in neurodegenerative disease, oxidative response, and mitochondria pathways, whereas age-upregulated genes in non-neuronal cells tended to be associated with inflammatory and immune response.

    “genes upregulated with age in neurons, in particular in inhibitory neurons, were enriched in pathways associated with neurodegenerative diseases, oxidative response, and mitochondria function, whereas genes upregulated with age in non-neuronal cells tended to be associated with inflammatory and immune response”

    From Molecular and spatial signatures of mouse brain aging at single-cell resolution (2023) · cites this paper as [19]

    Split into 2 atoms — 0 confirmed, 1 partially supported, 0 disputed, 0 misattributed, 1 unverifiable. Expand the claim to see per-atom verdicts.

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  • At very old age (26 months), mice show an inflammatory and type I IFN signature in kidneys and liver.

    “Consistent with previous research13, at a very old age (26 months), mice showed an inflammatory and type I IFN signature in the kidneys and the liver (Fig. 1d and Extended Data Fig. 4a,b).”

    From cGAS–STING drives ageing-related inflammation and neurodegeneration (2023) · cites this paper as [13]

    The main text (indexed under Abstract; page unavailable) reports an increased immune signature in ageing liver and a pro-inflammatory macrophage state in older kidneys. It does not report a type I IFN signature in both organs or a finding specifically at 26 months; its interferon-responsive gene finding concerns brain microglia. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Presence of a type I IFN signature in brain cells, in particular microglia, is increasingly associated with ageing and neurodegenerative disease in various species.

    “The presence of a type I IFN signature in brain cells, in particular in microglia, is increasingly being associated with ageing and neurodegenerative disease in various species13,15,39,44–50.”

    From cGAS–STING drives ageing-related inflammation and neurodegeneration (2023) · cites this paper as [13]

    The passage on brain myeloid microglia (section labelled Abstract; page unavailable) reports enrichment of interferon-responsive genes in older mice and overlap with a previously reported Alzheimer’s disease microglial signature. It does not identify the signature specifically as type I IFN or establish the association across various species. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Using murine bone marrow from tabula muris senis, the applicability of SenMayo in identifying senescent cells associated with aging was confirmed by GSEA.

    “using murine bone marrow from the tabula muris senis (a murine single cell transcriptome atlas of young vs. aged tissues36), the applicability of SenMayo in identifying senescent cells associated with aging was confirmed by GSEA (Fig. 2d).”

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [14]Carnero A Methods in Molecular Biology. Methods Mol. Biol. Clifton NJ 965, 63– 81 (2012). 23296651

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Authors
The Tabula Muris Consortium, Almanzar, N., Antony, J., Baghel, A. S., Bakerman, I., Bansal, I., Barres, B. A., Beachy, P. A., Berdnik, D., Bilen, B., Brownfield, D., Cain, C., Chan, C. K. F., Chen, M. B., Clarke, M. F., Conley, S. D., Darmanis, S., Demers, A., Demir, K., de Morree, A., Divita, T., du Bois, H., Ebadi, H., Espinoza, F. H., Fish, M., Gan, Q., George, B. M., Gillich, A., Gòmez-Sjöberg, R., Green, F., Genetiano, G., Gu, X., Gulati, G. S., Hahn, O., Haney, M. S., Hang, Y., Harris, L., He, M., Hosseinzadeh, S., Huang, A., Huang, K. C., Iram, T., Isobe, T., Ives, F., Jones, R. C., Kao, K. S., Karkanias, J., Karnam, G., Keller, A., Kershner, A. M., Khoury, N., Kim, S. K., Kiss, B. M., Kong, W., Krasnow, M. A., Kumar, M. E., Kuo, C. S., Lam, J., Lee, D. P., Lee, S. E., Lehallier, B., Leventhal, O., Li, G., Li, Q., Liu, L., Lo, A., Lu, W.-J., Lugo-Fagundo, M. F., Manjunath, A., May, A. P., Maynard, A., McGeever, A., McKay, M., McNerney, M. W., Merrill, B., Metzger, R. J., Mignardi, M., Min, D., Nabhan, A. N., Neff, N. F., Ng, K. M., Nguyen, P. K., Noh, J., Nusse, R., Pálovics, R., Patkar, R., Peng, W. C., Penland, L., Pisco, A. O., Pollard, K., Puccinelli, R., Qi, Z., Quake, S. R., Rando, T. A., Rulifson, E. J., Schaum, N., Segal, J. M., Sikandar, S. S., Sinha, R., Sit, R. V., Sonnenburg, J., Staehli, D., Szade, K., Tan, M., Tan, W., Tato, C., Tellez, K., Dulgeroff, L. B. T., Travaglini, K. J., Tropini, C., Tsui, M., Waldburger, L., Wang, B. M., van Weele, L. J., Weinberg, K., Weissman, I. L., Wosczyna, M. N., Wu, S. M., Wyss-Coray, T., Xiang, J., Xue, S., Yamauchi, K. A., Yang, A. C., Yerra, L. P., Youngyunpipatkul, J., Yu, B., Zanini, F., Zardeneta, M. E., Zee, A., Zhao, C., Zhang, F., Zhang, H., Zhang, M. J., Zhou, L., & Zou, J.
Affiliations
  • Stanford Medicine (US)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute (US)
  • VA Palo Alto Health Care System (US)
  • Stanford University (US)
  • Chan Zuckerberg Biohub San Francisco (US)
  • University of California, San Francisco (US)
  • University of Pittsburgh (US)
  • Princess Máxima Center (NL)
  • Jagiellonian University (PL)
  • Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CA)
  • Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
  • Darmanis, Spyros
  • Quake, Stephen R.
Venue
Nature
Published
2020-07-15
Volume
583
Issue
7817
Pages
590-595
ISSN
  • 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4687
OpenAlex
W3179857518
Cited by
1,247
References
63
Citations by year
2026: 195 · 2025: 223 · 2024: 213 · 2023: 222 · 2022: 188 · 2021: 155 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 2
FWCI
49.57
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • Homo Politicus (Academy of Humanities and Economics in Lodz) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion)
  • Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (IK6 BX004599)
  • National Institutes of Health
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (19K17831)
  • National Institute on Aging (AG053015, DP1AG053015)
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (K99HL127267, R00HL127267)
  • National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01DC016892)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (K08DK101603, P30DK026743)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
Keywords
aging, hallmarks of aging, single-cell transcriptomics, mice, cell composition, cellular senescence, genomic instability, cell type-specific gene expression, lifespan
MeSH terms
Aging, Animals, DNA Mutational Analysis, Female, Immunity, Liver, Male, Organ Specificity, T-Lymphocytes, Cellular Senescence, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental, Models, Animal, Genomic Instability, Mice, Single-Cell Analysis, Transcriptome

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