Role of NF-kB in aging. Mus musculus

To address the role of NF-kB in aging in vivo, we utilized a well-characterized system that allows inducible and site-specific inhibition of NF-kB activity in murine skin. The hormone binding domain of the mutant estrogen receptor that is responsive to 4-hydroxytamoxifen (4-OHT) was fused to a mutant of p50 (IDNkB, inducible dominant negative NF-kB) that dimerizes with other NF-kB subunits but is unable to bind DNA, thus dominantly inhibiting NF-kB activity. Expression was driven within the basal layer of murine epidermis by the keratin 14 promoter in transgenic mice. To test whether NF-kB activity is required to maintain age-associated gene expression, we applied topical 4-OHT and ethanol vehicle (EtOH) for two weeks to the right (R) and left (L) dorsal flanks, respectively, of chronologically aged transgenic mice (O, 18-23 months). Young transgenic mice (Y, 1 month) were treated in parallel as control. Skin samples were harvested and analyzed for gene expression using mouse cDNA microarrays containing 35,217 elements, representing 18,880 unique genes. Set of arrays organized by shared biological context, such as organism, tumors types, processes, etc. Keywords: Logical Set Overall design: Computed