The global demographic shift towards population aging will result in a dramatic increase in the numbers of elderly in the population. In order to cope with these changing demographics, it is imperative that we better understand aging and age-related pathologies. The reproductive tract provides an excellent system in which to study aging in that it is affected by aging, without compromising the overall health of the individual. In the Brown Norway rat model, the male reproductive tract (testis and epididymis) shows numerous signs of aging when other systems remain relatively unaffected by age, thus making this system ideal for studies on underlying causes of aging. One of the many theories proposed to account for the aging process is oxidative stress. Moreover, some of the changes that take place in the aging epididymis are suggestive of oxidative stress. In order to understand the contribution of oxidative stress to aging of the epididymis, we undertook global gene expression studies of the tissue in the young animal and then assessed how this gene expression was affected by age. We manipulated oxidative stress by caloric restriction and antioxidant (vitamin E) supplementation and deficiency. In characterizing the longitudinal gene expression in the young epididymis, we identified many genes never before reported in this tissue. We found that age profoundly affects gene expression in the epididymis and that the expression of oxidative stress related transcripts decreased, most dramatically in the distal (corpus and cauda epididymidis) regions of the tissue. Caloric restriction attenuated or reversed many of the gene expression changes that took place with age. The effect of caloric restriction was greatest for transcripts associated with protein synthesis and mitochondrial function. Finally, we found that long term antioxidant (vitamin E) deficiency resulted in increased expression of oxidative stress transcripts and exacerbated the effect
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.84264 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Jervis, Kathryn |
| Contributors | Robaire, Bernard (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002141454, proquestno: AAINQ98280, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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