Aged mouse ovarian immune milieu shows a shift towards adaptive immunity and attenuated cell function

The immune system plays a major role in maintaining many physiological processes in the reproductive system. However, a complete characterization of the immune milieu in the ovary, and particularly how it is affected by maternal aging, is still lacking. In this work, we utilize single-cell RNA seque...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inbioRxiv
Main Authors Tal Ben Yaakov, Wasserman, Tanya, Savir, Yonatan
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 13.08.2021
Subjects
Adaptive immunity
Aging
Chemokines
Cytokines
Flow cytometry
Follicles
Gene expression
Immune clearance
Immune system
Inflammation
Ovaries
Reproductive system
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Summary:The immune system plays a major role in maintaining many physiological processes in the reproductive system. However, a complete characterization of the immune milieu in the ovary, and particularly how it is affected by maternal aging, is still lacking. In this work, we utilize single-cell RNA sequencing and flow cytometry to construct a complete description of the murine ovarian immune system and its changes along with pre-estropause aging. We show that the ovarian immune cells composition undergoes an extensive shift with age towards adaptive immunity. We analyze the effect of aging on gene expression and chemokine and cytokine networks and show an overall decreased expression of inflammatory mediators together with an increased senescent cells recognition. Our results reveal the changes in the aging ovarian immune system of the fertile female as it copes with the inflammatory stimulations during repeated cycles and the increasing need for clearance of accumulating atretic follicles. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.
DOI:10.1101/2021.08.12.456051