Gene expression profile of dermis and epidermis from young and old age group

To uncover the genes related to nervous system increased in the process of intrinsic aging, microarray analysis was performed with the dermis and the epidermis of buttock skin obtained from the young and old volunteers. We found that 23 genes related to the nervous system were upregulated more than two-fold in the dermis of the aged. Conclusively, our results suggest that hyperinnervation together with elevated factors related to SP (substance P) signaling may result in the erroneous sensitization (e.g., pruritus) in the aged skin. Skin samples from five young and five old individuals were separated into dermis and epidermis. Thus, the sample preparation gave rise to four different groups of tissue-age combinations: Dermis-Old, Epidermis-Old, Dermis-Young, and Dermis-Young. Each group consisted of five samples, totaling twenty microarray altogether.

为揭示与神经系统相关、在内在衰老过程中表达上调的基因，研究人员对取自年轻及老年志愿者臀部皮肤的真皮与表皮组织开展了微阵列（microarray）分析。研究发现，老年个体的真皮组织中共有23个与神经系统相关的基因表达上调幅度超过2倍。综上，本研究结果提示，神经支配过度增强，加之P物质（substance P，SP）信号通路相关因子水平升高，可能会导致衰老皮肤出现异常致敏反应（如瘙痒症）。本研究共纳入5名年轻志愿者与5名老年志愿者的皮肤样本，将每份样本分离为真皮与表皮组分，最终得到四组不同的组织-年龄组合：老年真皮（Dermis-Old）、老年表皮（Epidermis-Old）、年轻真皮（Dermis-Young）、年轻表皮（Epidermis-Young）。每组包含5份样本，总计完成20次微阵列实验。