Stress and recovery dynamics reveal transcriptomic stability limits across aging mouse organs

In a preprint study, researchers subjected young and aged mice to transient sleep deprivation to investigate dynamic stress responses. They profiled transcriptomes across six organs immediately following the perturbation and after a recovery period. The perturbation prompted complex, organ- and age-dependent gene expression dynamics. Using a shape parameter, the authors distinguished genes that returned toward baseline expression levels from those that continued to drift away during recovery. The team then modeled transcriptomic vector fields using neural ordinary differential equations, identifying distinct stability regimes across different organs. In the testis of young mice, this modeling revealed a separatrix, a boundary that marks the limits within which a perturbed transcriptomic state can successfully return toward baseline.