scholarly journals Seven-CpG DNA Methylation Age determined by Single Nucleotide Primer Extension and Illumina's Infinium MethylationEPIC array provide highly comparable results

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin Max Vetter ◽  
Christian Humberto Kalies ◽  
Yasmine Sommerer ◽  
Lars Bertram ◽  
Ilja Demuth

DNA methylation age (DNAm age, epigenetic clock) is a novel and promising biomarker of aging. It is calculated from the methylation fraction of specific cytosine phosphate guanine sites (CpG sites) of genomic DNA. Several groups have proposed epigenetic clock algorithms and these differ mostly regarding the number and location of the CpG sites considered and the method used to assess the methylation status. Most epigenetic clocks are based on a large number of CpGs, e.g. as measured by DNAm microarrays. We have recently evaluated an epigenetic clock based on the methylation fraction of seven CpGs that were determined by methylation-sensitive single nucleotide primer extension (MS-SNuPE). This method is more cost-effective when compared to array-based technologies as only a few CpGs need to be examined. However, there is only little data on the correspondence in epigenetic age estimation using the 7-CpG clock and other algorithms. To bridge this gap, in this study we measured the 7-CpG DNAm age using two methods, via MS-SNuPE and via the MethylationEPIC array, in a sample of 1,058 participants of the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II), assessed as part of the GendAge study. On average, participants were 75.6 years old (SD: 3.7, age range: 64.9 - 90.0, 52.6% female). Agreement between methods was assessed by Bland-Altman plots. DNAm age was highly correlated between methods (Pearson's r=0.9) and Bland-Altman plots showed a difference of 3.1 years. DNAm age by the 7-CpG formula was 71.2 years (SD: 6.9 years, SNuPE) and 68.1 years (SD: 6.4 years, EPIC array). The mean of difference in methylation fraction between methods for the seven individual CpG sites was between 0.7 and 13 percent. To allow direct conversion between methods we developed an adjustment formula with a randomly selected training set of 529 participants using linear regression. After conversion of the Illumina data in a second and independent validation set, the adjusted DNAm age was 71.44 years (SD: 6.1 years, n=529). In summary, we found the results of DNAm clocks to be highly comparable. Furthermore, we developed an adjustment formula that allows for direct conversion of estimates between methods and enables one singular clock to be used in studies that employ either the Illumina or the SNuPE method.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Stubbs ◽  
Marc Jan Bonder ◽  
Anne-Katrien Stark ◽  
Felix Krueger ◽  
Ferdinand von Meyenn ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundDNA-methylation changes at a discrete set of sites in the human genome are predictive of chronological and biological age. However, it is not known whether these changes are causative or a consequence of an underlying ageing process. It has also not been shown whether this ‘epigenetic clock’ is unique to humans or conserved in the more experimentally tractable mouse.ResultsWe have generated a comprehensive set of genome-scale base-resolution methylation maps from multiple mouse tissues spanning a wide range of ages. Many CpG sites show significant tissue-independent correlations with age and allowed us to develop a multi-tissue predictor of age in the mouse. Our model, which estimates age based on DNA methylation at 329 unique CpG sites, has a median absolute error of 3.33 weeks, and has similar properties to the recently described human epigenetic clock. Using publicly available datasets, we find that the mouse clock is accurate enough to measure effects on biological age, including in the context of interventions. While females and males show no significant differences in predicted DNA methylation age, ovariectomy results in significant age acceleration in females. Furthermore, we identify significant differences in age-acceleration dependent on the lipid content of the offspring diet.ConclusionsHere we identify and characterize an epigenetic predictor of age in mice, the mouse epigenetic clock. This clock will be instrumental for understanding the biology of ageing and will allow modulation of its ticking rate and resetting the clock in vivo to study the impact on biological age.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Hearn ◽  
Fiona Plenderleith ◽  
Tom J. Little

Abstract Background Patterns of methylation influence lifespan, but methylation and lifespan may also depend on diet, or differ between genotypes. Prior to this study, interactions between diet and genotype have not been explored together to determine their influence on methylation. The invertebrate Daphnia magna is an excellent choice for testing the epigenetic response to the environment: parthenogenetic offspring are identical to their siblings (making for powerful genetic comparisons), they are relatively short lived and have well-characterised inter-strain life-history trait differences. We performed a survival analysis in response to caloric restriction and then undertook a 47-replicate experiment testing the DNA methylation response to ageing and caloric restriction of two strains of D. magna. Results Methylated cytosines (CpGs) were most prevalent in exons two to five of gene bodies. One strain exhibited a significantly increased lifespan in response to caloric restriction, but there was no effect of food-level CpG methylation status. Inter-strain differences dominated the methylation experiment with over 15,000 differently methylated CpGs. One gene, Me31b, was hypermethylated extensively in one strain and is a key regulator of embryonic expression. Sixty-one CpGs were differentially methylated between young and old individuals, including multiple CpGs within the histone H3 gene, which were hypermethylated in old individuals. Across all age-related CpGs, we identified a set that are highly correlated with chronological age. Conclusions Methylated cytosines are concentrated in early exons of gene sequences indicative of a directed, non-random, process despite the low overall DNA methylation percentage in this species. We identify no effect of caloric restriction on DNA methylation, contrary to our previous results, and established impacts of caloric restriction on phenotype and gene expression. We propose our approach here is more robust in invertebrates given genome-wide CpG distributions. For both strain and ageing, a single gene emerges as differentially methylated that for each factor could have widespread phenotypic effects. Our data showed the potential for an epigenetic clock at a subset of age positions, which is exciting but requires confirmation.


2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 657-661 ◽  
Author(s):  
YOSHIHISA YANO ◽  
TOMOHIRO YANO ◽  
ANNA KINOSHITA ◽  
AI MATOBA ◽  
TADAYOSHI HASUMA ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 791-800 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika J. Wolf ◽  
Mark W. Logue ◽  
Filomene G. Morrison ◽  
Elizabeth S. Wilcox ◽  
Annjanette Stone ◽  
...  

AbstractBackgroundPosttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and stress/trauma exposure are cross-sectionally associated with advanced DNA methylation age relative to chronological age. However, longitudinal inquiry and examination of associations between advanced DNA methylation age and a broader range of psychiatric disorders is lacking. The aim of this study was to examine if PTSD, depression, generalized anxiety, and alcohol-use disorders predicted acceleration of DNA methylation age over time (i.e. an increasing pace, or rate of advancement, of the epigenetic clock).MethodsGenome-wide DNA methylation and a comprehensive set of psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses were assessed in 179 Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans who completed two assessments over the course of approximately 2 years. Two DNA methylation age indices (Horvath and Hannum), each a weighted index of an array of genome-wide DNA methylation probes, were quantified. The pace of the epigenetic clock was operationalized as change in DNA methylation age as a function of time between assessments.ResultsAnalyses revealed that alcohol-use disorders (p = 0.001) and PTSD avoidance and numbing symptoms (p = 0.02) at Time 1 were associated with an increasing pace of the epigenetic clock over time, per the Horvath (but not the Hannum) index of cellular aging.ConclusionsThis is the first study to suggest that posttraumatic psychopathology is longitudinally associated with a quickened pace of the epigenetic clock. Results raise the possibility that accelerated cellular aging is a common biological consequence of stress-related psychopathology, which carries implications for identifying mechanisms of stress-related cellular aging and developing interventions to slow its pace.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Li ◽  
Siyuan Li ◽  
Ying Hu ◽  
Guolei Cao ◽  
Siyao Wang ◽  
...  

Objective. We investigated the expression levels of both FOSL2 mRNA and protein as well as evaluating DNA methylation in the blood of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) Uyghur patients from Xinjiang. This study also evaluated whether FOSL2 gene expression had demonstrated any associations with clinical and biochemical indicators of T2DM. Methods. One hundred Uyghur subjects where divided into two groups, T2DM and nonimpaired glucose tolerance (NGT) groups. DNA methylation of FOSL2 was also analyzed by MassARRAY Spectrometry and methylation data of individual units were generated by the EpiTyper v1.0.5 software. The expression levels of FOS-like antigen 2 (FOSL2) and the protein expression levels were analyzed. Results. Significant differences were observed in mRNA and protein levels when compared with the NGT group, while methylation rates of eight CpG units within the FOSL2 gene were higher in the T2DM group. Methylation of CpG sites was found to inversely correlate with expression of other markers. Conclusions. Results show that a correlation between mRNA, protein, and DNA methylation of FOSL2 gene exists among T2DM patients from Uyghur. FOSL2 protein and mRNA were downregulated and the DNA became hypermethylated, all of which may be involved in T2DM pathogenesis in this population.


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