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Single Cell Transcriptional Profiling of Adult Mouse Cardiomyocytes
Published on: December 28, 2011
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Increased cell-to-cell variation in gene expression in ageing mouse heart
Rumana Bahar1, Claudia H Hartmann, Karl A Rodriguez
1Buck Institute for Age Research, Novato, California 94945, USA.
Nature
|June 23, 2006
Summary
Aging increases gene expression variability in heart cells. This "transcriptional noise" is linked to DNA damage, suggesting a mechanism for age-related cellular decline in complex organisms.
Area of Science:
- Cellular Biology
- Genetics
- Aging Research
Background:
- Somatic DNA damage accumulation is a hallmark of aging.
- Increased DNA damage may lead to cellular degeneration via gene expression deregulation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if aging increases transcriptional noise in cardiomyocytes.
- To determine if DNA damage causes increased stochasticity in gene expression.
Main Methods:
- Single cardiomyocytes isolated from young and old mouse hearts.
- Global mRNA amplification and quantification of gene expression.
- Hydrogen peroxide treatment of mouse embryonic fibroblasts to induce DNA damage.
Main Results:
- Transcriptional noise was significantly elevated in cardiomyocytes from old mice compared to young mice.
- Hydrogen peroxide treatment increased cell-to-cell gene expression variation.
- Increased gene expression variation correlated with genome rearrangement mutations.
Conclusions:
- Aging enhances transcriptional noise in heart tissue.
- Genome damage is a likely cause of age-related gene expression stochasticity.
- This mechanism may explain cellular degeneration and death during aging.
