ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews experimental and analytical issues associated with high throughput genomic analyses in the aging brain within the context of datasets using several different aging paradigms. It aims to discuss functional genomics- and proteomics-based approaches to aging research, in an effort to develop useful biomarkers of specific aging processes for eventual pharmacotherapeutic development and disease prevention. Expression profiling studies of aged brain are derivatives of conventional aging paradigms whereby genomic and proteomic expression differences are characterized between young, adult, and senescent tissues. The study of aging was one of the original areas tackled by geneticists, as researchers attempted to assess why longevity in humans appears to be a heritable trait. Increases in several inflammatory responses are well documented during the aging process, and involve neuronal and nonneuronal cells within the central nervous system. The brain remains a difficult organ to study, in part due to the regional and cellular heterogeneity of brain regions and cell types.
