The aging mouse lipidome
Aging is associated with widespread metabolic changes that contribute to functional decline and disease. While prior studies have characterized age-associated changes in lipids, it still remains incompletely understood how the lipidome changes across tissues and between sexes during aging. Here, we performed targeted lipidomics across 10 organs collected from male and female mice at five ages spanning adolescence to old age. We analyzed 775 lipids across multiple lipid classes and found that aging affects the lipidome in an organ-specific manner. The thymus and quadriceps muscle had the most age-associated lipid changes, whereas lipid levels in organs such as the kidney and lung remained more stable. In quadriceps muscle, aging was associated with a decrease in specific phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine lipids, particularly those containing adrenic acid. We also identified sex-dependent differences in lipid composition, with the spleen showing differences throughout life. Spleens from female mice had lower levels of lysophosphatidylcholine and lysophosphatidylethanolamine compared to males. Together, these data provide a comprehensive atlas of age- and sex-associated lipid changes across mouse organs and complement existing metabolic and transcriptomic resources to support studies of mouse aging.