Digital Gene Expression Profiling Analysis of Aged Mice under Moxibustion Treatment.

Nan Liu,Li Han,Jian Huang,Jincai Hou,Baixiao Zhao,Yunyao Jiang,Min Xing,Minyee Lim,Xue Li

doi:10.1155/2018/4767328

Abstract

Aging is closely connected with death, progressive physiological decline, and increased risk of diseases, such as cancer, arteriosclerosis, heart disease, hypertension, and neurodegenerative diseases. It is reported that moxibustion can treat more than 300 kinds of diseases including aging related problems and can improve immune function and physiological functions. The digital gene expression profiling of aged mice with or without moxibustion treatment was investigated and the mechanisms of moxibustion in aged mice were speculated by gene ontology and pathway analysis in the study. Almost 145 million raw reads were obtained by digital gene expression analysis and about 140 million (96.55%) were clean reads. Five differentially expressed genes with an adjusted P value < 0.05 and |log⁡2(fold change)| > 1 were identified between the control and moxibustion groups. They were Gm6563, Gm8116, Rps26-ps1, Nat8f4, and Igkv3-12. Gene ontology analysis was carried out by the GOseq R package and functional annotations of the differentially expressed genes related to translation, mRNA export from nucleus, mRNA transport, nuclear body, acetyltransferase activity, and so on. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database was used for pathway analysis and ribosome was the most significantly enriched pathway term.

Highlights

Aging is closely connected with death, progressive physiological decline, and increased risk of diseases, such as cancer, type 2 diabetes mellitus, all forms of arteriosclerosis, heart disease, hypertension, age-related macular degeneration, and neurodegenerative diseases [1]
Six Digital gene expression (DGE) libraries were sequenced from 6 independent samples of female mice with or without moxibustion treatment to constitute a complete quantitative and qualitative gene expression response profile
We investigated the digital gene expression profiling of aged mice with or without moxibustion treatment and speculated the mechanisms of moxibustion in aged mice by analyzing the biological properties, molecular functions, and enriched pathways of differentially expressed genes

Summary

Introduction

Aging is closely connected with death, progressive physiological decline, and increased risk of diseases, such as cancer, type 2 diabetes mellitus, all forms of arteriosclerosis, heart disease, hypertension, age-related macular degeneration, and neurodegenerative diseases [1]. Aging is a complex biological process and the process is modulated by multiple intrinsic and extrinsic factors such as hereditary, environmental, dietary, lifestyle, and stochastic factors throughout a person’s lifetime [2]. Epigenetic alterations during aging are associated with modifications of DNA and histone proteins which straight affect chromatin structure and affect gene expression and genomic stability [3]. The damage of various cell components such as organelles, especially protein and DNA damage, has been proposed as a factor causing aging on the cellular level [4]. Many changes of gene expression in the process of aging have been examined by some surveys based on the central dogma. A number of pathways including the insulin/IGF-1 and TOR pathways and key factors including sirtuins and AMP kinase have been identified to regulate the aging process [5]

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