Cited by 205Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry StudiesEpigenetics and DNA MethylationGenetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms

Determinants of accelerated metabolomic and epigenetic aging in a UK cohort

Open access
Robinson, Oliver, Chadeau Hyam, Marc, Karaman, Ibrahim, Climaco Pinto, Rui, Ala-Korpela, Mika, Handakas, Evangelos, Fiorito, Giovanni, Gao, He +9 more·2020·Aging Cell

Published version of a preprint

Abstract

Markers of biological aging have potential utility in primary care and public health. We developed a model of age based on untargeted metabolic profiling across multiple platforms, including nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry in urine and serum, within a large sample ( N = 2,239) from the UK Airwave cohort. We validated a subset of model predictors in a Finnish cohort including repeat measurements from 2,144 individuals. We investigated the determinants of accelerated aging, including lifestyle and psychological risk factors for premature mortality. The metabolomic age model was well correlated with chronological age (mean r = .86 across independent test sets). Increased metabolomic age acceleration (mAA) was associated after false discovery rate (FDR) correction with overweight/obesity, diabetes, heavy alcohol use and depression. DNA methylation age acceleration measures were uncorrelated with mAA. Increased DNA methylation phenotypic age acceleration ( N = 1,110) was associated after FDR correction with heavy alcohol use, hypertension and low income. In conclusion, metabolomics is a promising approach for the assessment of biological age and appears complementary to established epigenetic clocks.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/acel.13149

Cites

89 of 89 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Robinson et al. assessed mass spectrometry metabolomic ageing clocks for enrichment of biological pathways and identified enrichments for metabolism of several vitamins, amino acids and xenobiotics.

    “Robinson et al.120 additionally assessed mass spectrometry metabolomic ageing clocks for the enrichment of biological pathways and identified enrichments for the metabolism of several vitamins, amino acids and xenobiotics.”

    From Measuring biological age using omics data (2022) · cites this paper as [120]

  • Metabolomic age acceleration correlated with triglyceride levels, obesity, heavy drinking, diabetes mellitus, depressive symptoms, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.

    “Metabolomic age acceleration correlated with triglyceride levels, obesity, heavy drinking, diabetes mellitus, depressive symptoms, depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.”

    From Measuring biological age using omics data (2022) · cites this paper as [120]

  • Metabolomic clocks have demonstrated lower age prediction accuracy than other omics data types despite training on extremely large sample sizes, and effect sizes for ageing traits have been modest.

    “Furthermore, metabolomic clocks have demonstrated lower age prediction accuracy than other omics data types despite training on extremely large sample sizes, and effect sizes for ageing traits have been modest113,116–121.”

    From Measuring biological age using omics data (2022) · cites this paper as [120]

  • Robinson et al.'s metabolomic age gap had no correlation with the Horvath, Hannum and PhenoAge clocks in the same cohort, yet there was some overlap in the correlation between age gap and phenotypes tested.

    “and Robinson et al.’s metabolomic age gap had no correlation with the Horvath, Hannum and PhenoAge clocks in the same cohort, yet there was some overlap in the correlation between age gap and phenotypes tested120.”

    From Measuring biological age using omics data (2022) · cites this paper as [120]

  • Robinson et al. compared multiple untargeted metabolomic methods for developing ageing clocks.

    “This study compared multiple untargeted metabolomic methods for developing ageing clocks”

    From Measuring biological age using omics data (2022) · cites this paper as [120]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Robinson, O., Chadeau Hyam, M., Karaman, I., Climaco Pinto, R., Ala-Korpela, M., Handakas, E., Fiorito, G., Gao, H., Heard, A., Jarvelin, M., Lewis, M., Pazoki, R., Polidoro, S., Tzoulaki, I., Wielscher, M., Elliott, P., & Vineis, P.
Affiliations
  • MRC Centre for Environment and Health (GB)
  • MRC Centre for Environment and Health Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics School of Public Health Imperial College London London UK
  • Computational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine University of Oulu and Biocenter Oulu Oulu Finland
  • University of Sassari (IT)
  • Imperial College London (GB)
  • Italian institute for Genomic Medicine (IT)
Corresponding author
Robinson, Oliver
Venue
Aging Cell
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2020-05-03
Volume
19
Issue
6
Pages
e13149-e13149
ISSN
  • 1474-9718 (ISSN-L)
  • 1474-9726
OpenAlex
W3021249782
Cited by
205
References
87
Citations by year
2026: 42 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 49 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 1
FWCI
6.70
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Aging Cell (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Brunel University Research Archive (BURA) (Brunel University London) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • UnissResearch (Università degli Studi di Sassari) (submittedVersion)
  • Spiral (Imperial College London) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (633666, 633595, 733206)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies
  • 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
Keywords
biological aging, DNA methylation age, accelerated aging, untargeted metabolomics, lifestyle risk factors, alcohol consumption, depression, obesity, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, socioeconomic status, epigenetic clocks, cross-cohort validation
MeSH terms
Adult, Aged, Aging, Female, United Kingdom, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Cohort Studies, DNA Methylation, Metabolomics, Young Adult, Epigenomics

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review