Senescence-related changes in gene expression in muscle: similarities and differences between mice and men.

A microarray study of the effect of senescence in mice on gene expression in muscle has been published recently. The present analysis was done to evaluate the extent to which the age-related differences in gene expression in murine muscle are also evident in human muscle. RNA extracted from muscle of young (21-24 yr) and old men (66-77 yr) was studied both by serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) and by oligonucleotide microarrays. SAGE tags were detected for 61 genes homologous to genes reported to be differentially expressed in young and old murine muscle. The microarray had probe sets for 70 homologous genes. For 17 genes, there was evidence for a similar age-related change in expression in muscles of mice and men. For 32 other genes, there was evidence that the effect of age on the level of expression is not the same in mice and men. There was no evidence that older human muscle has increased expression of the stress response genes that are increased in old murine muscle.