Fig. 1: Earlier onset of senescence in the ovary than in other organs in middle-aged (8-month-old) compared with young (2-month-old) mice.
a, Transcriptomic analysis of the upregulated (up) and downregulated (down) DEGs in the ovary, liver, muscle, heart, kidney, brain and lung tissues between 2-month-old and 8-month-old mice. Genes with |log2fold change (FC)| > 1 and adjusted P value (by the Benjamini–Hochberg method) < 0.05 were considered DEGs (n = 5 ovaries and n = 3 other tissues for each group). b, Dot plot of aging-related DEGs in the ‘SASP’, ‘cell cycle’, ‘inflammation’ and ‘DNA repair’ pathways, showing increased expression in the ovary, but not in other tissues tested, in middle-aged mice. c, Increased transcription of the senescence markers p16 and p21 in the ovaries but not in other organs from 8-month-old mice by using real-time RT–PCR (n = 9 or 10 mice for each group). M, months. d, Immunoblotting for the senescence markers P16 and P21 in the ovaries and other organs from 2-month-old and 8-month-old mice (n = 11 mice for each group). e, Quantification of P16 and P21 protein levels compared with GAPDH levels in different tissues (n = 11 mice for each group). f,g, GO analysis identified upregulated (f) and downregulated (g) genes in different pathways between young and middle-aged mice. P values were calculated by Fisher’s exact test and adjusted by the Benjamini–Hochberg method. h, Inflammation-related mRNA expression in the ovary, liver, muscle, heart, kidney, brain and lung from 2-month-old and 8-month-old mice (n = 9 or 10 mice for each group). i, Immunoblotting for inflammation-related protein expression in the ovary, liver, muscle, heart, brain, kidney and lung from 2-month-old and 8-month-old mice. j, The relative expression of each protein was calculated as a ratio to GAPDH levels (n = 10 mice for each group). k, Cnetplot showing the top five pathways from the GO ‘molecular function’ category and related genes with Cd38 highlighted. Data are presented as the mean ± s.e.m. P value was determined by the unpaired, two-tailed t-test. MHC, major histocompatibility complex; NLRP, NOD-containing, LRR-containing and pyrin ___domain-containing protein.
