Tissue and cellular spatiotemporal dynamics in colon aging.

Nature biotechnology
Authors
Abstract

Tissue structure and molecular circuitry in the colon can be profoundly impacted by systemic age-related effects but many of the underlying molecular cues remain unclear. Here, we build a cellular and spatial atlas of the colon across three anatomical regions and 11 age groups, encompassing ~1,500 mouse gut tissues profiled by spatial transcriptomics and ~400,000 single nucleus RNA-sequencing profiles. We develop a computational framework, cSplotch, which learns a hierarchical Bayesian model of spatially resolved cellular expression associated with age, tissue region and sex by leveraging histological features to share information across tissue samples and data modalities. Using this model, we identify cellular and molecular gradients along the adult colonic tract and across the main crypt axis and multicellular programs associated with aging in the large intestine. Our multimodal framework for the investigation of cell and tissue organization can aid in the understanding of cellular roles in tissue-level pathology.

Year of Publication
2025
Journal
Nature biotechnology
Date Published
10/2025
ISSN
1546-1696
DOI
10.1038/s41587-025-02830-6
PubMed ID
41125832
Links