%0 Journal Article
%T Single-cell transcriptome profiling highlights the importance of telocyte, kallikrein genes, and alternative splicing in mouse testes aging.
%A Guo W
%A Zhang Z
%A Kang J
%A Gao Y
%A Qian P
%A Xie G
%J Sci Rep
%V 14
%N 1
%D 2024 06 26
%M 38926537
%F 4.996
%R 10.1038/s41598-024-65710-0
%X Advancing healthcare for elderly men requires a deeper understanding of testicular aging processes. In this study, we conducted transcriptomic profiling of 43,323 testicular single cells from young and old mice, shedding light on 1032 telocytes-an underexplored testicular cell type in previous research. Our study unveiled 916 age-related differentially expressed genes (age-DEGs), with telocytes emerging as the cell type harboring the highest count of age-DEGs. Of particular interest, four genes (Klk1b21, Klk1b22, Klk1b24, Klk1b27) from the Kallikrein family, specifically expressed in Leydig cells, displayed down-regulation in aged testes. Moreover, cell-type-level splicing analyses unveiled 1838 age-related alternative splicing (AS) events. While we confirmed the presence of more age-DEGs in somatic cells compared to germ cells, unexpectedly, more age-related AS events were identified in germ cells. Further experimental validation highlighted 4930555F03Rik, a non-coding RNA gene exhibiting significant age-related AS changes. Our study represents the first age-related single-cell transcriptomic investigation of testicular telocytes and Kallikrein genes in Leydig cells, as well as the first delineation of cell-type-level AS dynamics during testicular aging in mice.