Transcriptomic Changes in Oligodendrocyte Lineage Cells During the Juvenile to Adult Transition in the Mouse Corpus Callosum

Abstract

The corpus callosum, a major white matter tract in the brain, undergoes age-related functional changes. To extend our investigation of age-related gene expression dynamics in the mouse corpus callosum, we compared RNA-seq data from 2-week-old and 12-week-old wild-type C57BL/6J mice and identified the differentially expressed genes (e.g., Serpinb1a, Ndrg1, Dnmt3a, etc.) between these ages. Interestingly, we found that genes highly expressed in myelinating oligodendrocytes were upregulated in 12-week-old mice compared to 2-week-old mice, while genes highly expressed in oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) and newly formed oligodendrocytes were downregulated. Furthermore, by comparing these genes with the datasets from 20-week-old and 96-week-old mice, we identified novel sets of genes with age-dependent variations in the corpus callosum. These gene expression changes potentially affect key biological pathways and may be closely linked to age-related neurological disorders, including dementia and stroke. Therefore, our results provide an additional dataset to explore age-dependent gene expression dynamics of oligodendrocyte lineage cells in the corpus callosum.