Aging- and Alcohol-Associated Spatial Transcriptomic Signature in Mouse Acute Pancreatitis

The rapidly aging population has an increased alcohol use, resulting in increased risk and mortality of alcohol-associated acute pancreatitis in the elderly population. We established an aging- and alcohol-associated acute pancreatitis mouse model and applied spatial transcriptomics to profile heterogenous tissue composition in the mouse pancreas and the associated gene expression. By comparing with the young cohorts, our analysis has revealed the key differentially expressed genes in functional tissue compartments for understanding the mechanisms and developing targeted therapeutic strategies. Pancreatic formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue sections from four C57BL/6 male mice (2 young and 2 aging) with acute pancreatitis induced by alcohol liquid diet feeding and cerulein injection were analyzed using spatial transcriptomics.