Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 27th 2020

In this study, we applied a well studied prediction model developed on data from five CpG sites, to increase the practicability of these tests. We have determined the biological age of the heart, specifically of the right atrium (RA) and left atrium (LA), and of peripheral blood leucocytes, by measuring the mitotic telomere length (TL) and the non-mitotic epigenetic age (DNAmAge). We found that DNAmAge, of both atrial tissues (RA and LA), was younger in respect to the chronological age (-12 years). Furthermore, no significant difference existed between RA and LA, suggesting that, although anatomically diverse and exposed to different physiological conditions, different areas of the heart had the same epigenetic non-mitotic age. Furthermore, the epigenetic age of both RA and LA, was even younger than that of the blood (-10 years). In the present study, we demonstrated that biological age of the heart did not reflect the donor's chronological age, while blood tracked these modifications. This would suggest that while blood is more susceptible to epigenetic changes induced by the interaction of advancing age and environmental factors, the heart is affected by these factors to a lower extent. It could be also postulated that the presence of stem cells in the cardiac muscle may explain why human heart tissue tends to have a lower DNAmAge. In fact, stem cells are found in relatively large numbers within myocardial tissue and show a DNAmAge close to zero. However, furt...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs