Open AccessTranscriptional analysis of islets of Langerhans from organ donors of different ages
Author(s) -
Peter Seiron,
Anton Stenwall,
A. Hedin,
Louise Granlund,
Jonathan L.S. Esguerra,
Petr Volkov,
Erik Renström,
Olle Korsgren,
Marcus Lundberg,
Oskar Skog
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0247888
Subject(s) - islet , transcriptome , biology , laser capture microdissection , osteopontin , downregulation and upregulation , gene , senescence , gene expression , diabetes mellitus , endocrinology , medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , genetics
Insulin secretion is impaired with increasing age. In this study, we aimed to determine whether aging induces specific transcriptional changes in human islets. Laser capture microdissection was used to extract pancreatic islet tissue from 37 deceased organ donors aged 1–81 years. The transcriptomes of the extracted islets were analysed using Ion AmpliSeq sequencing. 346 genes that co-vary significantly with age were found. There was an increased transcription of genes linked to senescence, and several aspects of the cell cycle machinery were downregulated with increasing age. We detected numerous genes not linked to aging in previous studies likely because earlier studies analysed islet cells isolated by enzymatic digestion which might affect the islet transcriptome. Among the novel genes demonstrated to correlate with age, we found an upregulation of SPP1 encoding osteopontin. In beta cells, osteopontin has been seen to be protective against both cytotoxicity and hyperglycaemia. In summary, we present a transcriptional profile of aging in human islets and identify genes that could affect disease course in diabetes.