Aging Alters The Molecular Dynamics Of Synapses In A Sexually Dimorphic Pattern In Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Publication date: Available online 20 February 2017
Source:Neurobiology of Aging
Author(s): Elif Tugce Karoglu, Dilara Ozge Halim, Bahriye Erkaya, Ferda Altaytas, Ayca Arslan-Ergul, Ozlen Konu, Michelle M. Adams
The zebrafish has become a popular model for studying normal brain aging due to its large fecundity, conserved genome and available genetic tools but little data exists about neurobiological age-related alterations. The current study tested the hypothesis of an association between brain aging and synaptic protein loss across males and females. Western blot analysis of synaptophysin (SYP), a presynaptic vesicle protein, and postsynaptic density-95 (PSD-95) and gephyrin (GEP), excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic receptor-clustering proteins, respectively was performed in young, middle-aged, and old male and female zebrafish (Danio rerio) brains. Univariate and multivariate analysis demonstrated that PSD-95 significantly increased in aged females and SYP significantly decreased in males, but GEP was stable. Thus, these key synaptic proteins vary across age in a sexually-dimorphic manner, which has been observed in other species, and these consequences may represent selective vulnerabilities for aged males and females. These data expand our knowledge of normal aging in zebrafish, as well as further establish this model as an appropriate one for examining human brain aging.



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