DNA methylation changes in mice induced by parabiosis and recovery [RRBS]

Aging is classically conceptualized as an ever-increasing trajectory of damage accumulation and loss of function, leading to increases in morbidity and mortality. However, recent in vitro studies have raised the possibility of age reversal. We characterized several models in which biological age is perturbed. Heterochronic parabiosis and recovery from this procedure is one such example. Overall design: We studied a mouse model of heterochronic parabiosis. Mouse pairs (either age-mismatched, heterochronic; or age-matched, isochronic) were surgically joined and maintained for 3 months. After this period, a subset of mice were euthanized and tissues were collected for analysis, and another subset of pairs was surgically detached and allowed to recover for 2 months, after which tissues were collected. We subjected DNA isolated from these samples to reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS).