Whole exome sequencing of aged murine bone marrow hematopoietic cells

Aging generally predisposes stem cells to functional decline. Here, we report that hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) acquire metabolic resilience that promotes cell survival, increasing their cell numbers with age. Little is known about whether aged murine HSCs undergo clonal expansion similarly to human hematopoiesis. Here we performed whole exome sequencing of aged bone marrow cells to investigate whether there is clonal expansion with specific genetic alterations, and if it is the case, there are commonly mutated genes associated with human clonal hematopoiesis. We found that there are no commonly mutated genes observed in human clonal hematopoisis, and thus concluded that HSC expansion in murine HSCs is a process apart from clonal expansion caused by specific genetic alterations.