Overview
- Researchers profiled nearly seven million cells from 32 mice at 1, 5, and 21 months using optimized single-cell ATAC-seq.
- They identified more than 1,800 cell subtypes and found about a quarter shift in abundance with age, with some declines appearing by midlife.
- Parallel cellular and chromatin changes emerged across multiple organs, indicating shared programs rather than isolated tissue decay.
- Of 1.3 million genomic regions assessed, roughly 300,000 showed age-related accessibility changes, including about 1,000 common across many cell types and linked to immune and stem cell pathways.
- Roughly 40% of aging-associated differences were sex-dependent, and analyses nominate cytokine signaling as a candidate coordinator; the full atlas is available at epiage.net.