Journal Article

An epigenetic clock analysis of race/ethnicity, sex, and coronary heart disease

Tsao, Philip S., Trumble, Benjamin C., Rickabaugh, Tammy M., Kobor, Michael S., Allayee, Hooman, Horvath, Steve, Assimes, Themistocles L., Gurven, Michael, Lu, Ake T., Chen, Wei, Quintana-Murci, Lluis, Levine, Morgan E., Chen, Brian, Ritz, Beate R., Jamieson, Beth D., Kaplan, Hillard, Sun, Dianjianyi, Li, Shengxu, Absher, Devin, Fagny, Maud, Edlefsen, Kerstin L., Reiner, Alexander P.

2016

Overview

Background Epigenetic biomarkers of aging (the “epigenetic clock”) have the potential to address puzzling findings surrounding mortality rates and incidence of cardio-metabolic disease such as: (1) women consistently exhibiting lower mortality than men despite having higher levels of morbidity; (2) racial/ethnic groups having different mortality rates even after adjusting for socioeconomic differences; (3) the black/white mortality cross-over effect in late adulthood; and (4) Hispanics in the United States having a longer life expectancy than Caucasians despite having a higher burden of traditional cardio-metabolic risk factors. Results We analyzed blood, saliva, and brain samples from seven different racial/ethnic groups. We assessed the intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration of blood (independent of blood cell counts) and the extrinsic epigenetic aging rates of blood (dependent on blood cell counts and tracks the age of the immune system). In blood, Hispanics and Tsimane Amerindians have lower intrinsic but higher extrinsic epigenetic aging rates than Caucasians. African-Americans have lower extrinsic epigenetic aging rates than Caucasians and Hispanics but no differences were found for the intrinsic measure. Men have higher epigenetic aging rates than women in blood, saliva, and brain tissue. Conclusions Epigenetic aging rates are significantly associated with sex, race/ethnicity, and to a lesser extent with CHD risk factors, but not with incident CHD outcomes. These results may help elucidate lower than expected mortality rates observed in Hispanics, older African-Americans, and women.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: adulthood / African Americans / Age / Aged / Aging / Aging - genetics / American Indians / Animal Genetics and Genomics / Biochemistry, Molecular Biology / Bioinformatics / Biomarkers / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Black or African American - genetics / blood / blood cell counts / Brain / Cardiovascular disease / Coronary artery disease / Coronary Disease / Coronary Disease - genetics / Coronary Disease - mortality / Coronary Disease - physiopathology / Datasets / Deoxyribonucleic acid / DNA / DNA Methylation / DNA Methylation - genetics / Epigenesis, Genetic / Epigenesis, Genetic - genetics / Epigenetics / Ethnicity / Evolutionary Biology / Female / Gene expression / Genomes / Genomics / Heart diseases / Hispanic or Latino / Hispanic or Latino - genetics / Hispanic people / Hispanics / HIV / Human Genetics / Human immunodeficiency virus / Humans / Immune system / Life Sciences / Life span / longevity / Male / men / Metabolic disorders / Microbial Genetics and Genomics / Minority & ethnic groups / Morbidity / Mortality / Plant Genetics and Genomics / Race / Racial Groups / Racial Groups - genetics / Religious orders / Risk Factors / Saliva / Sex Characteristics / Studies / United States / United States - epidemiology / White people / White People - genetics / Whites / Women