Transcriptome analysis of brown fat in young or old mice in cold exposure

Purpose: We investigated the transcriptomic change in brown fat of young and old mice (wild type) through high-throughput RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis when the mice were exposed to cold room or room temperatur. Methods: We prepared 10 of young (3 months) mice and 9 of old (24 months) mice, and kept them in cold room (4°c) or room temperature (24°c) for 24 hours. Then, we sacrified mice and extracted RNA from brown fat tissue (BAT) for RNA-seq experiment. Results: BAT of Young mice showed increased carbohydrate metabolism and glycolytic flux during cold exposure Conclusions: The thermogenesis function of BAT is accelerated on cold exposure. Overall design: Five young (3 months) male mice were exposed to cold room (4°c); five young male mice were exposed to room temperature (24°c); four old (24 months) male mice were expposed to cold room (4°c); five old male mice were exposed to room temperature. After 24 hours for exposure, mice were sacrificed and BAT was extracted from between the shoulder blades.