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. 2021 Dec 2;23(2):e53658. doi: 10.15252/embr.202153658

Figure 1. ACE2 expression increases during aging in mouse and human lungs.

Figure 1

  1. RT‐qPCR detection of Ace2 mRNA expression levels in lungs from young (2–3 months) and old (22–24 months) mice (n = 7 mice per group).
  2. Representative microphotographs and quantitative analyses of ACE2 immunohistochemical staining in lungs from young (2 months) and old (22 months) mice (n = 3 mice per group). Scale bar, 200 µm.
  3. Representative microphotographs and quantitative analyses of ACE2 immunohistochemical staining in lung parenchyma of young (20–35 years old) and old (60–80 years old) humans (n = 4–7 individuals per group). Scale bar, 200 µm.
  4. Double‐marker immunofluorescence and quantitative analyses of ACE2 intensity level in pro‐SP‐C‐positive type II pneumocytic and CD31‐positive endothelia in lungs from young and old mice (n = 3–6 mice per group). Scale bar, 100 µm. a.u. = arbitrary units.
  5. Double‐marker immunofluorescence and quantitative analyses of ACE2 intensity level in TTF‐1‐positive type II pneumocytic and CD31‐positive endothelia in lungs from young and old humans (n = 4–7 individuals per group). Scale bar, 100 µm. a.u. = arbitrary units.
  6. Single‐cell transcriptomic data from aging tissues in the mouse lung from Tabula Muris Senis. Upper left panel: uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) of cell identity with ATII cells represented as red dots. Upper right panel: dot plot of Ace2 expression according to age (young = 3 months; old = 30 months). Dot size represents fraction of cells expressing a given gene. Lower panel: UMAP of Ace2 expressing cells depicted as blue dots.

Data information: In (A–E), data are presented as mean ± SEM. *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001 two‐sided unpaired Student's t‐test.