Honors Thesis Archive

Author	Heepke Wendroth
Title	The aging-related gene expression of a component of Sp100-rs in adipocytes may correlate to the redistribution of white adipocyte tissue to various organs in Mus musculus
Department	Biochemistry/Molecular Biology & Biology
Advisors	Margaret Goodman, Kristin Cline, and Michelle McWhorter
Year	2013
Honors	University Honors
Full Text	View Thesis (714 KB)
Abstract	The component of an Sp100-rs (Csprs) gene has shown an aging-related increase in expression in mouse tissues, including the heart, kidney, and fats. While the up-regulation is not always significant, the trend of increased expression suggests that Csprs may be used as a biomarker for aging. Csprs seems to be associated primarily with adipose tissue, and its expression usually correlates to high amounts of adiponectin. Furthermore, within white adipose tissue, Csprs is mostly expressed in adipocytes but not in stromal vascular cells, suggesting that the gene may, in fact, be adipose-specific. Therefore, the aging-related increase of Csprs in tissues like the heart and kidney could be related to the fat accumulation in these tissues with age. This suggests a link between Csprs expression, aging, and development of various aging-related diseases such as diabetes and coronary heart disease.