Age-associated changes in gene expression in the anterior pituitary glands of female Japanese black cattle

Proper functioning of the anterior pituitary (AP) gland is imperative, however, is suppressed by aging via unclear mechanisms. Therefore, we identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the AP glands of Japanese Black young heifers (approximately 22 months old) compared to old cows (approximately 120 months old) via deep sequencing of the transcriptome (RNA-seq) to characterize potentially important pathways. The young and old AP glands expressed 20,171 annotated genes. Of the total transcripts per million, approximately 41.6% and 35.5% were the sum of seven AP hormone genes in young and old AP glands, respectively, with difference observed in the sum between the young and old AP glands ( P