Gene expression profiling of the ageing rat vibrissa follicle.

The application of gene expression profiling to the study of chronological ageing has the potential to illuminate the molecular mechanisms underlying a complex and active process. For example, ageing of the skin and its constituent organs has myriad phenotypic consequences, and a better understanding of the means by which these changes arise has important corollaries for intervention strategies. We used a transcriptional profiling approach to investigate changes in gene expression associated with ageing of the large vibrissa follicle of the Wistar rat. Follicle mRNA isolated from male Wistar rats at 1 and 18 months of age was hybridized to Clontech Atlas 1.2 Rat cDNA macroarrays. Confirmation of array results was provided by the use of Northern blotting and immunohistochemistry. Seven transcripts displayed at least a 1·6-fold increase in expression with age, of which APOD (2·5-fold), GSTM2 (2·0-fold) and NPY (1·8-fold) showed the greatest increases. Decreased expression was found in 19 transcripts, most notably in ALOX12 (13·3-fold) and GAP43 (12·6-fold) expression. Follicular ageing is characterized by transcriptional changes associated with diverse aspects of keratinocyte metabolism, proliferation and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]