Back

Transcriptomic Insights into Hypothalamic Aging During Menopause: A Comparative Analysis of Human and Mouse Models

Bloom, J. C. B.; Torres, E.; Pereira, S. A.; Arvizu-Sanchez, L.; Fontes, A. N.; Joffe, H.; Page, D. C.; Navarro, V. M.

2024-10-06 neuroscience
10.1101/2024.10.05.616758 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Menopause significantly impacts womens health, yet hypothalamic changes during this transition remain poorly understood. We analyzed gene expression in human hypothalamic samples across menopausal transition, revealing significant changes in inflammatory pathways, KNDy neuron signaling, and thermoregulatory genes. This analysis also identified novel central markers of menopause, including AKAP5 and CDKN1A (p21). To further investigate these changes, we developed a novel mouse model based on long-term (4 months) post-ovariectomy (OVX) that mimics the gonadotropin and temperature fluctuations of menopausal transition. Remarkably, the posterior hypothalamus of 4-month post-OVX mice closely mirrored the transcriptional changes observed in women at the late peri-/early post-menopausal age range (ages 51-55). Both species exhibited increased inflammatory signaling and glial activation, alongside altered KNDy neuron activity. Our findings provide new insights into the central mechanisms of menopausal symptoms and offer a valuable preclinical model for testing interventions.

Matching journals

The top 7 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.