PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - A. Sina Booeshaghi
AU  - Lior Pachter
TI  - Decrease in <em>ACE2</em> mRNA expression in aged mouse lung
AID  - 10.1101/2020.04.02.021451
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.04.02.021451
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/05/2020.04.02.021451.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/04/05/2020.04.02.021451.full
AB  - Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) has been identified as a critical receptor for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This has led to extensive speculation on the role of ACE2 in disease severity, and in particular, whether variation in its expression can explain higher mortality in older individuals. We examine this question in mouse lung and show that 24-month old mice have significantly reduced ACE2 mRNA expression relative to 3-month old mice. The differences appear to be localized to ciliated cells.