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Cited by 188Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration MechanismsAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsGenetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms

Transcriptomic profiling of microglia and astrocytes throughout aging

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Pan, Jie, Ma, Nana, Yu, Bo, Zhang, Wei, Wan, Jun·2020·Journal of Neuroinflammation
DOI 10.1186/s12974-020-01774-9PMC PMC7115095
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Abstract

Background: Activation of microglia and astrocytes, a prominent hallmark of both aging and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), has been suggested to contribute to aging and AD progression, but the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms are largely unknown. Methods: We performed RNA-seq analyses on microglia and astrocytes freshly isolated from wild-type and APP-PS1 (AD) mouse brains at five time points to elucidate their age-related gene-expression profiles. Results: Our results showed that from 4 months onward, a set of age-related genes in microglia and astrocytes exhibited consistent upregulation or downregulation (termed “age-up”/“age-down” genes) relative to their expression at the young-adult stage (2 months). And most age-up genes were more highly expressed in AD mice at the same time points. Bioinformatic analyses revealed that the age-up genes in microglia were associated with the inflammatory response, whereas these genes in astrocytes included widely recognized AD risk genes, genes associated with synaptic transmission or elimination, and peptidase-inhibitor genes. Conclusions: Overall, our RNA-seq data provide a valuable resource for future investigations into the roles of microglia and astrocytes in aging- and amyloid-β-induced AD pathologies.

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  • The dominance of microglia genes was confirmed when we looked at the expression of cell-type-specific marker genes for microglia, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.

    “The dominance of microglia genes was confirmed when we looked at the expression of cell-type-specific marker genes for microglia (e.g. Cx3cr1,P2ry12,Tmem119,Aif1,Olfml3,Ccl3,Itgam),astrocytes (e.g. Aldh1l1,Atp1b2,Aqp4,Sox9,Slc4a4,Mlc1) and oligodendrocytes (e.g., Nfasc, Kndc1; Supplementary Figure 5) (Pan et al., 2020).”

    From Single-cell resolution analysis of the crosstalk between chemogenically activated astrocytes and microglia (2020) · cites this paper as Pan et al., 2020

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Pan, J., Ma, N., Yu, B., Zhang, W., & Wan, J.
Affiliations
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HK)
Corresponding author
  • Zhang, Wei
  • Wan, Jun
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Neuroinflammation
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2020-04-01
Volume
17
Issue
1
Pages
97-97
ISSN
1742-2094 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/s12974-020-01774-9
PMC
PMC7115095
OpenAlex
W3014752737
Cited by
188
References
19
Citations by year
2026: 16 · 2025: 28 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 33 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 1
FWCI
9.87
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Neuroinflammation (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Rare & Special e-Zone (The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFA0501903)
  • National Natural Scientific Foundation of China (81673053)
  • Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2016A030312016)
  • Shenzhen Basic Research Grant (JCYJ20170411090739316, JCYJ20170815153617033, JCYJ20180507182657867, JCYJ20170306161450254, JCYJ20170306161807726)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
Keywords
microglia, astrocytes, brain aging, Alzheimer's disease, APP/PS1 mice, age-related gene expression, neuroinflammation, amyloid-beta, synaptic transmission, protease inhibitors, gene expression profiling
MeSH terms
Aging, Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Astrocytes, Brain, Disease Models, Animal, Mice, Transgenic, Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor, Microglia, Disease Progression, Gene Expression Profiling, Mice, Presenilin-1, Transcriptome

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