Figure 4. Effect of aging and Cx3cr1 deletion on microglial transcriptome.
Microglia were isolated from 2-mo-, 1-yr-, or 2-yr-old Cx3cr1+/+ (WT), Cx3cr1+/eGFP (Het), or Cx3cr1eGFP/eGFP (KO) mice. (A) Fewer microglia were recovered from 2 yr mice, but the recovery was independent of genotype. (B, C) RNA-seq was performed on all samples together. Each symbol represents microglia from an independent animal. (B) The PCA for all samples suggests separation by age as the primary factor driving variability, with genotype second and gender third (B). (C) For microglia from 2-yr-old mice (C), the samples separate by genotype and by gender within each genotype. (D) Overlap of DEGs between 2-yr and 2-mo microglia in WT and in KO mice. There is a large amount of shared DEGs between the genotypes.