Transcriptomic changes in oligodendrocyte lineage cells during the juvenile to adult transition in the mouse corpus callosum

Abstract

Abstract The corpus callosum, a major white matter tract in the brain, undergoes age-related functional changes. To extend our investigation of age-related gene expression dynamics in the mouse corpus callosum, we compared RNA-seq data from 2 week-old and 12 week-old wild-type C57BL/6 J mice and identified the differentially expressed genes (e.g., Marcksl1, Chst3, C4b, Neat1, Ndrg1, Emid1, etc.) between these ages. Interestingly, we found that genes highly expressed in myelinating oligodendrocytes were upregulated in 12 week-old mice compared to 2 week-old mice, while genes highly expressed in oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) and newly formed oligodendrocytes were downregulated. Furthermore, by comparing these genes with the datasets from 20 week-old and 96 week-old mice, we identified novel sets of genes with age-dependent variations in the corpus callosum. These gene expression changes potentially affect key biological pathways and may be closely linked to age-related neurological disorders, including dementia and stroke. Therefore, our results provide an additional dataset to explore age-dependent gene expression dynamics of oligodendrocyte lineage cells in the corpus callosum.

Keywords

• Aging
• Corpus callosum
• Development
• RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq)