Microglial activation with aging and sex differences
Microglia serve as the first line of defense in the CNS by protecting the local environment against invading pathogens, helping recover from injury, and also playing significant roles in synapse pruning and neurodevelopment [
50]. At homeostasis, microglia continuously monitor the surrounding environment and as such, maintain a ramified morphology with numerous long processes that project out from the cell body. Upon activation by the presence of an external pathogen, inflammation, or injury, microglial morphology changes, and movement to sites of injury or stress can occur along with a release soluble immune mediators [
51,
52].
Traditionally activated microglia have been split into two distinct groups: M1 (classical) and M2 (activation/deactivation) [
52,
53]. Classical, M1 activation is triggered by the presence of foreign antigen or pro-inflammatory cytokines, whereby microglia become more cytotoxic and release additional pro-inflammatory cytokines and free radicals [
54,
55]. Alternative activation (M2) of microglia yields a more anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective phenotype that is important in the transition between a classical inflammatory response, to a decrease in inflammation [
52,
54]. These microglia secrete anti-inflammatory cytokines and neurotrophic factors and help repair local damage [
52]. Despite the anti-inflammatory nature of M2 microglia, the irregular abundance of both M1 and M2 type microglia may underlie chronic neuroinflammation and parainflammation, with aging [
52,
56]. In support of this, using an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model, a distinct shift in activated microglia phenotypes occurs between the beginning of Aβ pathology (alternative phenotype) and advanced stages (classical phenotype), the latter of which may cause disease-associated neuron loss [
57]. As such, aberrant induction or changes in the ratios of M1 and M2 activated microglia with increasing age may be maladaptive. However, the idea of M1 and M2 activation states may be too simplistic [
58]. These maladaptive responses may be due to miscommunication between damaged neurons and microglia causing persistent parainflammation [
59,
60] and failure of appropriate responses to different stimuli [
60] that can switch from being neuroprotective to neurotoxic with aging [
61]. This altered response pattern with aging is observed in response to pathogens [
62], and injury [
63]. Together, these data suggest that with advanced age, microglia are undergoing activation and alteration, potentially with a shift from neuroprotection to neurotoxicity. More broadly, these findings add aging to the variety of stimuli that demonstrate a sexually divergent or dimorphic neuroinflammatory response [
64,
65].
Previous focused examinations have found sex differences at early ages in selected microglial genes at ages equivalent to the young and adult ages examined here [
66]. We have demonstrated distinct differences in the induction of MHCI pathway genes in the brains of aged male and female 24-month-old mice, where aged females exhibit significantly higher expression [
27] when compared to males, a finding with support in human datasets [
2]. The findings here expand the analysis to the broader transcriptome and identify an enrichment of microglial-specific genes in age changes and sex differences. Many of the neuroinflammatory genes changed in expression with aging were common between the sexes with females demonstrating greater magnitude changes. The sexually divergent induction of Tyrobp is of special interest give the recent identification of Tyrobp, also known as TREM2, as a causal regulator in microglia associated changes in AD [
67] through the exact mechanistic role of Tyrobp in AD etiology is still being determined [
68]. Confirmation of selected microglial ligands, effectors, and receptors validates this pattern of gene expression. Reproducibility of expression signatures for microglial aging with previously reported data suggests a robustness to this phenomenon [
69] though this study is the first to our knowledge to examine sex differences with aging in detail. Selected transcripts were also found to be sexually divergent in the cortex with some differences as compared to the hippocampus, indicative of the microglial heterogeneity observed between brain regions [
70].
Our findings demonstrate that neuroinflammation with aging may represent a pattern presents a phenotype more complex than the previous hypotheses of microglial as existing in activated or resting. These states may be too simplistic, with microglial having surveilling, classically activated/M1, and alternatively activated/M2 states or an even more complex combination of activational states and not all microglia in a brain region being in the same state [
39,
71,
72]. Future studies examining isolated microglial cells with new high-throughput single cell technologies [
73] would greatly extend these findings to determine if these patterns are shared across individual microglial cells, or if the activation is heterogenous. Additionally, interventional studies to determine if these changes are positively adaptive or maladaptive are needed, as well as examinations of the regulation of age-related changes by sex hormones or non-sex hormone mediated mechanisms [
74].
A potential concern with these findings is the effects of a change in microglial that microglia cell numbers with age. Changes in the number of hippocampal microglial with age remain an unresolved controversy. Studies have reported no changes in microglial number in mice [
29] and rats [
31], decreased microglial number [
75], and increased microglial number in females but not males with aging [
28]. Microglial quantitation was not a goal of this study but clearly is an important question to be resolved in the field and if there are changes in microglial population numbers they could play a role in the findings presented here. Arguing against this interpretation are the findings of similar patterns of gene induction in isolated microglial from aged mice [
39], an experimental design that would normalize out differences in cell number. Ultimately, detailed analysis of microglial number and activation state with aging in both females and males are needed [
76] and application of single cell analysis techniques will allow further refinement of these findings.
Complement pathway and neuroinflammation
Previous reports have detailed alterations in neuroinflammation in the aged brain (as reviewed in [
25]) as well as the participation of cellular senescence in the pathogenesis of brain aging [
77]. A notable finding presented here is the significant induction in expression of complement pathway components in both males and females but to a much greater extent in females, in the hippocampus with advanced age. These findings are supported by data in the aged human hippocampus [
78] and in studies in male mice [
49]; however, to date, no between sex comparisons has been conducted. Previous work has generally examined sexually divergent differences in gene expression in the brain with aging comparing the number of gene expression changes in both males and females and separating gene expression profiles based on up or downregulation [
2]. The study presented here used a more holistic approach and examined over-representation of classes of genes as well as both inductions and reductions in gene expression that may act synergistically.
Recent evidence has shown the importance of complement pathway components including C1q and C3 in activity-dependent synaptic refinement during development [
79‐
82]. Complement factors expressed in the brain effectively label cells that need to be eliminated by local complement receptor-expressing microglia, including weak synaptic inputs [
79,
80]. In response to a pathogen, West Nile Virus, C1qa induction is a driver of synapse loss with greater C1qa induction associated with poorer cognitive performance [
83]. Given the role of complement pathway components in the homeostatic regulation of synapse formation and health, aberrant expression of complement proteins may play a significant role in synapse loss with aging and neurodegenerative disease [
80,
82]. Previous studies have demonstrated an induction in the expression of complement factors with advanced age in both the aged mouse neocortex and cerebellum [
6] and the aged rat striatum [
84] as well as in neurodegenerative disease (as reviewed in [
85]). Recently, complement pathway factors have been shown to play strong roles in synapse loss with normal aging [
86] and the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disease [
87]. This suggests that aberrant neuron–microglial communication via the complement pathway leads to inappropriate synapse loss which may lead to cell death and the manifestation of neurodegenerative disease [
80]. In further support of this, findings from a mouse model of glaucoma demonstrated elevated C1q expression is evident in adult retinal synapses prior to neuron cell death, suggesting aberrant expression of complement components leads to synapse loss and disease progression [
80,
82].
Age-related complement C1q induction with aging has previously been described in male rodents and in human brain [
49]. Little data exists detailing sex divergences in inflammatory gene expression in the brain. In the human brain, a higher basal level of complement cascade genes and interleukin 1 receptor-like 1 (IL1RL1) was evident in women versus men [
88]. However, to date, no studies have directly described a sexually divergent neuroinflammatory response with aging. The data presented here demonstrates a heightened neuroinflammatory profile in aged female mice in comparison to males. This is true at mRNA and protein levels and can be seen across the brain with patches of C1q immunoreactivity developing with aging, that have previously been demonstrated to overlap with microgial markers [
49].Elevated levels of complement pathway components and other immune factors may cause aberrant synapse elimination mediated by microglia potentially underlying the sexually divergent hippocampal volume loss seen in humans with aging [
23]. Together, these data suggest sex may be a risk factor for the development of immune related diseases and CNS neuroinflammation [
23,
89‐
91], specifically post-menopause when estrogen levels drop [
92]. These sex dependent biases seen in gene expression may possibly be driven by differences in circulating sex hormones, sex-specific developmental program, or direct actions of sex chromosomes [
93]. As such, including females in preclinical geroscience research studies is imperative in order to develop a full understanding of the “sexome” [
94] with brain aging.
Other pathways and expression entropy with aging
In addition to the microglial and neuroinflammatory findings, significant decreases in the activation of both Notch1 and Presenilin 1 and 2 (PSEN1, PSEN2) regulated genes with aging were evident in both males and females. Importantly, both pathways are associated with neurogenesis. Specifically, Notch1 expression is necessary for neural stem cell maintenance [
95] while PSEN1 expression regulates neuroprogentor cell differentiation [
96]. Notch1 expression has previously been reported to be downregulated in the subventricular zone (SVZ) with aging [
97]. Additionally, defects in PSEN1 expression are associated with the manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease in old age [
98]. Decreased expression of these pathways may contribute to the known impairment of neurogenesis with aging in the hippocampus [
99]. It is also important to note that microglia play important roles in neurogenesis [
100,
101]. As such, the altered microglia-derived gene expression and the inhibition of pro-neurogenesis pathways evident with aging in the present study could be interrelated [
102].
Another finding from the present study was decreased expression of tuberous sclerosis complex 2 (TSC2) regulated genes in both males and females with advanced age, and also in aged females when compared to age-matched males. TSC2 forms a complex with TSC1, and together, the complex functions to inhibit the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) [
103]. mTOR serves as a master regulator of many cellular processes including protein synthesis, proliferation, and cell survival. In the brain, mTOR has a multitude of different functions such as neuronal development, growth of dendrites and axons, neuronal migration, synaptic plasticity, neurotransmission, and DNA repair (see review [
104]). Importantly, aberrant expression of TSC1 or TSC2 causes significant neurological disease, and overactivation of mTOR has been linked to the development of neurodegenerative disorders [
103]. mTOR is a strong negative regulator of autophagy. As such, dysregulated mTOR activity following decreased TSC2 expression may lead to increased protein aggregation and decreased autophagy. Pharmacological inhibition of mTOR via rapamycin treatment has shown increases in life span [
105] and neuroprotection [
106], suggesting dysregulated mTOR signaling with age may contribute to brain aging. However, evidence exists documenting the requirement of mTOR in the development of proper dendritic arbor morphology [
107] and in the stress-induced induction of post-synaptic density 95 (PSD-95) protein expression [
108], hypothesized to underlie long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD). These data highlight the need to study alterations in mTOR activity and responsiveness in both young and aged population to better understand aberrant activity with age.
The finding of increased inter-animal gene expression variance with aging in males but not females provides a different view on hippocampal gene expression with aging. Given that the mice used in this study (C57BL/6) are inbred and spent their entire lives under the same controlled conditions, males demonstrated an increased animal-to-animal variance with aging that was not evident in females. Previously increased cell-to-cell variability of gene expression in cardiomyocytes [
45] with aging has been reported, as well as animal-to-animal increases in gene expression variance in a variety of tissues in males [
46,
47,
109]. We observe that males steadily increase in variance across the lifespan while females do not, ultimately resulting in a higher level of inter-animal variance in old age in males as compared to females. The only report we are aware of examining males and females also found that inter-animal variance increased only in males [
109]. The functional implications of this difference are not clear, but this may be a result of underlying epigenetic changes [
110]. Confirmation studies across multiple tissues and with higher sample numbers are needed to explore this intrinsic variability with aging in males. Lastly, for both the sex divergences in gene expression and the increased variance in gene expression only observed in males, future studies will need to dissect the causes of these differences at the level of development, direct action of gonadal hormones, or sex chromosomes [
93] and whether these age-related alterations are associated with cognitive impairment [
111].