Correlations of Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number and Epigenetic Age Measures

Mitochondria are the power plants of the cell, a herd of bacteria-like organelles that produce the chemical energy store molecule ATP. They have their own DNA, a circular genome distinct from that of the cell nucleus, sometimes several copies per mitochondrion. The number of those mitochondrial DNA copies in a cell is a measure of mitochondrial health that declines with age, as mitochondria become dysfunctional throughout the body. The proximate causes of this dysfunction involve changes in mitochondrial structure and dynamics that inhibit the quality control process of mitophagy, responsible for recycling worn and damaged mitochondria. Connections to deeper causes are not well understood, but these issues must in some way result from the underlying damage of aging. The DNA methylation (DNAm) based estimator of biological age, DNAm-Age, has become a well-known molecular measure of human aging. DNAm-Age has been associated with cancers, cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases, and chronic inflammation diseases. Subsequently, another DNAm based marker, DNAm-PhenoAge, was developed to be an improved predictor of mortality and health span using phenotypic age estimated from a range of aging-related clinical measures. Most recently, another metric, DNAm-GrimAge, has been developed to predict all cause mortality and health span. Unfortunately, the underlying biological and molecular processes that drive these epigenetic age biomarkers are still unknown. Despi...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs