Thursday, January 19, 2017

BISTRO - Shweta Ramdas

4:00 PM

2036 Palmer Commons

BISTRO is restricted to U-M Bioinformatics Graduate Program students and faculty.

 

"A Transcriptional profiling of aging in the trabecular meshwork"

Abstract

The trabecular meshwork (TM) is a small region of the outer eye responsible for the outflow of aqueous humor from the cornea. Increasing stiffness of the TM with age leads to increased resistance to this outflow and is a risk factor for glaucoma. Using microarrays, we analyzed gene expression of 93 TM samples from humans of varying ages to identify a molecular profile for aging in this tissue and identify molecular changes that could explain increased risk of glaucoma. We found 120 genes whose expression levels are significantly associated with tissue age, of which gene CCNG1 (Cyclin G1) is most significant. Our age-associated genes are enriched in 151 biological pathways, of which 138 are upregulated. This includes pathways like the extracellular matrix and focal adhesion that are related to the physiology of the tissue. We compared our aging signature to previous transcriptional studies of aging in other tissues and found convergence of aging signatures at the pathway level. We also found that the TM appears to show a reduced aging signature compared to other human tissues.