| Description |
Advanced paternal age of reproduction is an increasing trend, especially in the developed countries and areas. Yet, a systematic profiling of aging associated testicular molecular and cellular alterations is still missing. Here, we constructed the first single-cell transcriptomic atlases of testes of young and old mice. Further aging-related differentially expressed genes analysis uncovered the disrupted balance of undifferentiated and differentiated spermatogonia stem cells in spermatogonia, indicative of a potential role of spermatogonia stem cells in aging-associated subfertility. Importantly, for the first time, our results identified an increased subtype of proinflammatory macrophage cells, which may contribute to a hostile inflammatory microenvironment during testicular aging. Taken together, our findings depict the distinct single-cell transcriptional features of the aged mouse testis, and provide enormous resources for a comprehensive understanding of the cell-type-specific molecular mechanisms underlying mouse testicular aging, which may shed light on developing potential novel diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic intervention targets against age-associated male subfertility. |
