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Updated: Jun 5, 2025

A Phenotyping Regimen for Genetically Modified Mice Used to Study Genes Implicated in Human Diseases of Aging
Published on: July 14, 2016
Computational and digital analyses in the INSPIRE mouse cohort to define sex-specific functional determinants of
Yohan Santin1,2, Mattia Chiesa3,4, Amélie Alfonso5
1Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire (IHU) HealthAge, Toulouse, France.
Abstract:
Biological age, which reflects the physiological state of an individual, offers a better predictive value than chronological age for age-related diseases and mortality. Nonetheless, determining accurate functional features of biological age remains challenging due to the multifactorial nature of aging. Here, we established a unique mouse cohort comprising 1576 male and female outbred SWISS mice subjected or not to high-fat, high-sucrose diet to investigate multiorgan/system biological aging throughout adulthood. Comprehensive functional and biological phenotyping at ages of 6, 12, 18, and 24 months revealed notable sex-specific disparities in longitudinal locomotion patterns and multifunctional aging parameters. Topological data analysis enabled the identification of functionally similar mouse clusters irrespective of chronological age. Moreover, our study pinpointed critical functional markers of biological aging such as muscle function, anxiety characteristics, urinary patterns, reticulocyte maturation, cardiac remodeling and function, and metabolic alterations, underscoring muscle function as an early indicator of biological age in male mice.

