Identification of genes showing an age related expression in iNKT1, 2, and 17 cells of BALB/c thymus

In this study we applied RNA high-throughput seqencing to compare the global gene expression of young adult and aged iNKT subset in thymus of BALB/c mice. We found that only a small number of genes exerted a profound and statistically significant up- or downregulation upon ageing whereas a plethora of minor changes in the gene expression pattern were evident. However, significant age-related differences in expression of a variety of genes such as Histone genes, Gzma, CD25 and others might correlate with functional adaptations to the drastically altering thmyus micro-environment during aging. Overall design: Surface markers CD4 and CD122 were used to sort by flow cytometry CD3+tet+DAPI-B220- thymocytes of young adult and aged BALB/c mice to obtain iNKT1, iNKT2 and iNKT17 cells. Total RNA was prepared and quality controlled aliquots used for sequencing.