Analysis of transcriptome sequencing of sciatic nerves in Sprague-Dawley rats of different ages

An aging-induced decrease in Schwann cell viability can affect regeneration following peripheral nerve injury in mammals. It is therefore necessary to investigate possible age-related changes in gene expression that may affect the biological function of peripheral nerves. Ten 1-week-old and ten 12-month-old healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into young (1 week old) and adult (12 months old) groups according to their ages. mRNA expression in the sciatic nerve was compared between young and adult rats using next-generation sequencing (NGS) and bioinformatics (n = 4/group). The 18 groups of differentially expressed mRNA (DEmRNAs) were also tested by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (n = 6/group). Results revealed that (1) compared with young rats, adult rats had 3608 groups of DEmRNAs. Of these, 2684 were groups of upregulated genes, and 924 were groups of downregulated genes. Their functions mainly involved cell viability, proliferation, differentiation, regeneration, and myelination. (2) The gene with the most obvious increase of all DEmRNAs in adult rats was Thrsp (log2FC = 9.01, P