Aging and Gene Expression in the Primate and Human Brain 1

Erin Sanders

Signature Assignment

Anth 1020

3/15/2017

Aging and Gene Expression in the Primate and Human Brain

The aging brain has been a topic of discussion for quite some time.

Why do we age, and what causes aging within humans and primates? The

Aging and Gene Expression Study reflects the findings of different

components on why we age differently from primates. The study of reactive

oxygen species (ROS) which is a class of genes that is involved in the aging

process is evidence that Free Radical Theory proves to be correct. This study

shows the aging differences between the human cerebral cortex and the

human cerebellum, and the chimpanzee cortex. ROS can damage cellular

components such as DNA, lipids and proteins. They studied several

microarray expressions sets including Lu et al which the frontal pole

regions of 30 individuals used to identify hundreds of genes with clear up- or

down-n regulation associated with age. Khaitovich et al, which gene

expressions patterns of six brain regions (prefrontal cortex (PFC), primary

visual cortex (PVC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), Brocas area (BC,

caudate nucleus (CN, and cerebellum) and finally Evans et al; which three

brain regions from seven individuals were studied. These regions were the

prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex and the cerebellum.

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The readings were somewhat hard to follow; however, I did study more

on the Free Radical Theory and what it has to do with the aging process

within humans and primates. Denham Harman from University of California,

Berkley states that; This cycle seems to be a more or less direct function of

the metabolic rate and this in turn depends on the species (animal or plant)

on which are super- imposed the factors of heredity and the effects of the

stresses and strains of lifewhich alter the metabolic activity. I found it

interesting that in the study of human brain it shows that aging is

heterogeneous and that while aging happens in both the human cortex and

the chimpanzee cortex; the patterns differ between the two.

They first started their studies comparing aging in all six regions of the

brain in the study of Khaitovic et al, there were only three samples available

with two different ages. The three patterns available were up-regulation (70-

year-old sample highly expressed), down-regulation (70-year-old sample

weakly expressed) or neither (70 yr. old sample is in between young

samples.) They then tested to see how well the frontal pole data agreed with

each of the six regions tested. I believe that they took in to consideration

how aging works in each region of the brain before concluding on whether

Free Radical Theory was proven to be a factor.

I never really considered what causes us to age, and why our aging

occurs within a century vs. longer. I found it really fascinating that free

agents are a large contributor to aging and the degenerative diseases

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associated with aging. Looking back at the study from Harman, he talks

about how OH and OH2 radicals are a good source of why there are changes

on a living cell.

In conclusion, it does make sense that free agents are a huge

contributor to aging, I believe that there should be more studies done on

whether there are other factors involved. Aging comes with all sorts of

effects physically and mentally. I think it would be great to find out a way on

how we can slow the process down for people who suffer from diseases such

as Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease.

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Bibliography

Fraser HB, Khaitovich P, Plotkin JB, Pbo S, Eisen MB (2005) Aging and Gene
Expression in the Primate Brain. PLOS Biology 3(9): e274. doi:
10.1371/journal.pbio.0030274

Harman, Denham. Aging: A Theory Based on Free Radical and Radiation

Chemistry. Berkeley, CA: U of California Radiation Laboratory, 1955. Print.