Expression data from young and old mouse ovarian secondary follicles. Expression data from young and old mouse ovarian secondary follicles

The ovarian function decreases in parallel with aging. So do the quantity of follicles, which is about 1-2 million at birth, while only about 1000 primordial follicles are left at menopause. Folliculogenesis is vital for ovary function, no matter the synthesis of female hormones or ovulation, yet the mechanisms for its changing with increasing age are not fully understood. To further understand the age-related molecular changes in the process of folliculogenesis, we performed microarray gene expression profile analysis using total RNA extracted from young (9 weeks old) and old (32 weeks old) mouse ovarian secondary follicles. The results of our current microarray study revealed that there were 371 (≥2 fold, q-value ≤0.05) genes differentially expressed in which 174 genes were up-regulated and 197 genes were down-regulated in old mouse ovarian secondary follicles compared to young mouse ovarian secondary follicles. The gene ontology and KEGG pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes uncovered critical biological functions such as immune system process, aging, transcription, DNA replication, DNA repair, protein stabilization and apoptotic process were affected in the process of aging. The considerable changes in gene expression profile may have an adverse influence on follicle quality and folliculogenesis. Our study provided information on the processes that may contribute to age-related decline in ovarian function. Overall design: Ovarian secondary follicles from young and old mouse were selected for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays. The gene expression profile were analyzed to found what changed in the process of mouse ovarian aging.