A single-cell RNA sequencing dataset of cardiac aging in African Turquoise Killifish

Alterations across different cardiac cell types must be tightly orchestrated during normative aging process that has begun to be mapped at the transcriptional level through single-cell RNA-sequencing. However, current rodent models are limited in their capacity to experimentally test large numbers of candidate differentially expressed genes (DEGs).

As an attractive alternative, the African Turquoise Killifish (ATK) promises more efficient genetic studies of cardiac aging because it has the shortest lifespan among vertebrates. Despite its experimental advantages, single-cell transcriptomic studies on cardiac aging in ATK have not yet been conducted. Here, we generated the first scRNA-seq profiles of hearts from young and old GRZ strain ATK and demonstrated changes in cellular composition, gene expression, functional pathways, and intercellular communication during cardiac aging.