Messenger RNA levels and methlation patterns of GAPDH and β-actin genes in rat liver, spleen and brain in relation to aging

P. Eline Slagboom, Wiljo J.F. De Leeuw, Jan Vijg

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

66 Scopus citations

Abstract

Messenger RNA levels and methylation patterns of the glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate-dehydrogenase (GAPHD) and β-actin genes were studied in spleen, liver and brain of 6-, 24- and 36-month old female inbred rats. In the spleen, the mRNA levels of both housekeeping genes significantly increased between 24 and 36 months. No age-related alterations in the expression of GAPDH or β-actin mRNA were observed in brain or liver. A considerable intertissue and interindividual variation was observed in the mRNA levels of these genes in all age-groups as compared to the level of 28 S rRNA, which was used as an internal control. In this respect the interindividual variation in the level of GAPDH mRNA paralleled the variation observed in the β-actin mRNA level in the three tissues studied. The methylation pattern of β-actin was found to be tissue-specific in contrast to that of GAPDH, which was identical in all three tissues. No significant age-related alterations were observed in the GAPDH methylation pattern, whereas β-actin appeared to become slightly demethylated with age in the spleen at the CpG site for which tissue-specificity was observed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)243-257
Number of pages15
JournalMechanisms of Ageing and Development
Volume53
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 30 1990
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Aging
  • DNA methylation
  • GAPDH
  • Gene expression
  • mRNA
  • β-Actin

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Aging
  • Developmental Biology

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