Synchrony and asynchrony between an epigenetic clock and developmental timing
Open accessAbstract
Epigenetic changes have been used to estimate chronological age across the lifespan, and some studies suggest that epigenetic “aging” clocks may already operate in developing tissue. To better understand the relationship between developmental stage and epigenetic age, we utilized the highly regular sequence of development found in the mammalian neural retina and a well-established epigenetic aging clock based on DNA methylation. Our results demonstrate that the epigenetic age of fetal retina is highly correlated with chronological age. We further establish that epigenetic aging progresses normally in vitro, suggesting that epigenetic aging is a property of individual tissues. This correlation is also retained in stem cell-derived retinal organoids, but is accelerated in individuals with Down syndrome, a progeroid-like condition. Overall, our results suggest that epigenetic aging begins as early as a few weeks post-conception, in fetal tissues, and the mechanisms underlying the phenomenon of epigenetic aging might be studied in developing organs.
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DNA methylation age estimates of neurons tend to be lower than chronological age but remain correlated, in agreement with previous studies.
“In agreement with previous studies57,63,64, DNAm age estimates of neurons tend to be lower than their chronological age but remain correlated.”
From Reprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision (2020) · cites this paper as [64]
The Epigenetic clock analysis section (page unavailable) says DNAm age correlates with chronological age in sorted neurons. It does not say neuronal DNAm age estimates tend to be lower than chronological age; the paper’s own reported correlation concerns fetal retinal tissue, not isolated neurons. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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Sorted by citations
Reprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision
Lu, Y., Brommer, B., Tian, X., Krishnan, A., Meer, M., Wang, C., Vera, D. L., Zeng, Q., Yu, D., Bonkowski, M. S., et al. (2020) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2975-4 · Cited by 820 · see citing works
“In agreement with previous studies 57,63,64 , DNAm age estimates of neurons tend to be lower than their chronological age but remain correlated.”
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Hoshino, A., Horvath, S., Sridhar, A., Chitsazan, A., & Reh, T. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Washington (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Corresponding author
- Reh, Thomas A.
- Venue
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2019-03-06
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3770-3770
- ISSN
- 2045-2322 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6403397
- OpenAlex
- W2919418800
- Cited by
- 55
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2025: 6 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 5
- FWCI
- 3.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Scientific Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
- University of Washington
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute on Aging (U01AG060908)
- National Eye Institute (P30 EY01730, F32EY025117, R01EY021482, P30EY001730)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Epigenetics and DNA Methylation
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
- Keywords
- epigenetic aging, DNA methylation, epigenetic clocks, developmental timing, fetal retina, neural retina development, retinal organoids, Down syndrome, tissue-specific aging, chronological age
- MeSH terms
- Cells, Cultured, Humans, Organoids, Retina, Cellular Senescence, Sequence Analysis, RNA, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Epigenesis, Genetic
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