abstract
Studying aging is important to further understand the molecular mechanisms underlying this physiological process and, ideally, to identify a panel of aging biomarkers. Animals, in particular mice, are often used in aging studies, since they mimic important features of human aging, age quickly, and are easy to manipulate. The present work describes the use of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to identify an age-related spectroscopic profile of the cardiac and skeletal muscle tissues of C57BL/6J female mice. We acquired ATR-FTIR spectra of cardiac and skeletal muscle at four different ages: 6; 12; 17 and 24 months (10 samples at each age) and analyzed the data using multivariate statistical tools (PCA and PLS) and peak intensity analyses. The results suggest deep changes in protein secondary structure in 24-month-old mice compared to both tissues in 6-month-old mice. Oligomeric structures decreased with age in both tissues, while intermolecular beta-sheet structures increased with aging in cardiac muscle but not in skeletal muscle. Despite FTIR spectroscopy being unable to identify the proteins responsible for these conformational changes, this study gives insights into the potential of FTIR to monitor the aging process and identify an age-specific spectroscopic signature.
keywords
AGGREGATION
subject category
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Chemistry, Multidisciplinary
authors
Magalhaes, S; Almeida, I; Martins, F; Camoes, F; Soares, AR; Goodfellow, BJ; Rebelo, S; Nunes, A
our authors
Brian James Goodfellow
Assistant Professor
Idália Duarte de Almeida
PhD Student
Sandra Vicência Martins Magalhães
PhD Studentacknowledgements
This work was supported by Fundaco para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) I.P. (PIDDAC), European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) (project numbers UIDB/04501/2020; PTDC/DTP-PIC/5587/2014; POCI-01-0145-FEDER016904; UIDB/50011/2020; UIDP/50011/2020; CENTRO-01-0145-FEDER-000003 and SFRH/BD/131820/2017 to SM) and also by national funds (OE), through FCTFundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, I.P., in the scope of the framework contract foreseen in the numbers 4, 5 and 6 of the article 23, of the Decree-Law 57/2016, of August 29, changed by Law 57/2017, of July 19.