1 5746 110 SMOKING-RELATED DNA METHYLATION IS ASSOCIATED WITH DNA METHYLATION PHENOTYPIC AGE ACCELERATION: THE VETERANS AFFAIRS NORMATIVE AGING STUDY. DNA METHYLATION MAY PLAY A CRITICAL ROLE IN AGING AND AGE-RELATED DISEASES. DNA METHYLATION PHENOTYPIC AGE (DNAMPHENOAGE) IS A NEW AGING BIOMARKER AND PREDICTOR OF CHRONIC DISEASE RISK. WHILE SMOKING IS A STRONG RISK FACTOR FOR CHRONIC DISEASES AND INFLUENCES METHYLATION, ITS INFLUENCE ON DNAMPHENOAGE IS UNKNOWN. WE INVESTIGATED ASSOCIATIONS OF SELF-REPORTED AND EPIGENETIC SMOKING INDICATORS WITH DNAMPHENOAGE ACCELERATION IN A LONGITUDINAL AGING STUDY IN EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS. DNA METHYLATION WAS MEASURED IN WHOLE BLOOD SAMPLES FROM MULTIPLE VISITS FOR 692 MALE PARTICIPANTS IN THE VETERANS AFFAIRS NORMATIVE AGING STUDY DURING 1999-2013. ACCELERATION WAS DEFINED USING RESIDUALS FROM LINEAR REGRESSION OF THE DNAMPHENOAGE ON THE CHRONOLOGICAL AGE. CUMULATIVE SMOKING (PACK-YEARS) WAS SIGNIFICANTLY ASSOCIATED WITH DNAMPHENOAGE ACCELERATION, WHEREAS SELF-REPORTED SMOKING STATUS WAS NOT. WE OBSERVED SIGNIFICANT VALIDATED ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN SMOKING-RELATED LOCI AND DNAMPHENOAGE ACCELERATION FOR 52 CPG SITES, WHERE 18 WERE HYPOMETHYLATED AND 34 WERE HYPERMETHYLATED, MAPPED TO 16 GENES. THE AHRR GENE HAD THE MOST LOCI (N = 8) AMONG THE 16 GENES. WE GENERATED A SMOKING AGING INDEX BASED ON THESE 52 LOCI, WHICH SHOWED POSITIVE SIGNIFICANT ASSOCIATIONS WITH DNAMPHENOAGE ACCELERATION. THESE EPIGENETIC BIOMARKERS MAY HELP TO PREDICT AGE-RELATED RISKS DRIVEN BY SMOKING. 2019 2 3995 42 LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF DNA METHYLATION OF INFLAMMATORY GENES AND CANCER RISK. BACKGROUND: CHRONIC INFLAMMATION PLAYS A KEY ROLE IN CANCER ETIOLOGY. DNA METHYLATION MODIFICATION, ONE OF THE EPIGENETIC MECHANISMS REGULATING GENE EXPRESSION, IS CONSIDERED A HALLMARK OF CANCER. HUMAN AND ANIMAL MODELS HAVE IDENTIFIED NUMEROUS LINKS BETWEEN DNA METHYLATION AND INFLAMMATORY BIOMARKERS. OUR OBJECTIVE WAS TO PROSPECTIVELY AND LONGITUDINALLY EXAMINE ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN METHYLATION OF FOUR INFLAMMATORY GENES AND CANCER RISK. METHODS: WE INCLUDED 795 NORMATIVE AGING STUDY PARTICIPANTS WITH BLOOD DRAWN ONE TO FOUR TIMES FROM 1999 TO 2012 (MEDIAN FOLLOW-UP, 10.6 YEARS). PROMOTER DNA METHYLATION OF IL6, ICAM-1, IFN, AND TLR2 IN BLOOD LEUKOCYTES WAS MEASURED USING PYROSEQUENCING AT MULTIPLE CPG SITES AND AVERAGED BY GENE FOR DATA ANALYSIS. WE USED COX REGRESSION MODELS TO EXAMINE PROSPECTIVE ASSOCIATIONS OF BASELINE AND TIME-DEPENDENT METHYLATION WITH CANCER RISK AND COMPARED MEAN METHYLATION DIFFERENCES OVER TIME BETWEEN CANCER CASES AND CANCER-FREE PARTICIPANTS. RESULTS: BASELINE IFN HYPERMETHYLATION WAS ASSOCIATED WITH ALL-CANCER (HR, 1.49; P = 0.04) AND PROSTATE CANCER INCIDENCE (HR, 1.69; P = 0.02). BASELINE ICAM-1 AND IL6 HYPERMETHYLATION WERE ASSOCIATED WITH PROSTATE CANCER INCIDENCE (HR, 1.43; P = 0.02; HR, 0.70; P = 0.03, RESPECTIVELY). IN OUR TIME-DEPENDENT ANALYSES, IFN HYPERMETHYLATION WAS ASSOCIATED WITH ALL-CANCER (HR, 1.79; P = 0.007) AND PROSTATE CANCER (HR, 1.57; P = 0.03) INCIDENCE; AND ICAM-1 AND IL6 HYPERMETHYLATION WERE ASSOCIATED WITH PROSTATE CANCER INCIDENCE (HR, 1.39; P = 0.02; HR, 0.69; P = 0.03, RESPECTIVELY). WE DETECTED SIGNIFICANT ICAM-1 HYPERMETHYLATION IN CANCER CASES (P = 0.0003) 10 TO 13 YEARS PREDIAGNOSIS. CONCLUSION: HYPERMETHYLATION OF IFN AND ICAM-1 MAY PLAY IMPORTANT ROLES IN EARLY CARCINOGENESIS, PARTICULARLY THAT OF PROSTATE CANCER. IMPACT: THESE METHYLATION CHANGES COULD INFORM THE DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY DETECTION BIOMARKERS AND POTENTIAL TREATMENTS OF INFLAMMATION-RELATED CARCINOGENESIS. 2015 3 178 34 ACCELERATED EPIGENETIC AGING AS A RISK FACTOR FOR CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE AND DECREASED LUNG FUNCTION IN TWO PROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDIES. CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE (COPD) IS A FREQUENT DIAGNOSIS IN OLDER INDIVIDUALS AND CONTRIBUTOR TO GLOBAL MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY. GIVEN THE LINK BETWEEN LUNG DISEASE AND AGING, WE NEED TO UNDERSTAND HOW MOLECULAR INDICATORS OF AGING RELATE TO LUNG FUNCTION AND DISEASE. USING DATA FROM THE POPULATION-BASED KORA (COOPERATIVE HEALTH RESEARCH IN THE REGION OF AUGSBURG) SURVEYS, WE ASSOCIATED BASELINE EPIGENETIC (DNA METHYLATION) AGE ACCELERATION WITH INCIDENT COPD AND LUNG FUNCTION. MODELS WERE ADJUSTED FOR AGE, SEX, SMOKING, HEIGHT, WEIGHT, AND BASELINE LUNG DISEASE AS APPROPRIATE. ASSOCIATIONS WERE REPLICATED IN THE NORMATIVE AGING STUDY. OF 770 KORA PARTICIPANTS, 131 DEVELOPED INCIDENT COPD OVER 7 YEARS. BASELINE ACCELERATED EPIGENETIC AGING WAS SIGNIFICANTLY ASSOCIATED WITH INCIDENT COPD. THE CHANGE IN AGE ACCELERATION (FOLLOW-UP - BASELINE) WAS MORE STRONGLY ASSOCIATED WITH COPD THAN BASELINE AGING ALONE. THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE CHANGE IN AGE ACCELERATION BETWEEN BASELINE AND FOLLOW-UP AND INCIDENT COPD REPLICATED IN THE NORMATIVE AGING STUDY. ASSOCIATIONS WITH SPIROMETRIC LUNG FUNCTION PARAMETERS WERE WEAKER THAN THOSE WITH COPD, BUT A META-ANALYSIS OF BOTH COHORTS PROVIDE SUGGESTIVE EVIDENCE OF ASSOCIATIONS. ACCELERATED EPIGENETIC AGING, BOTH BASELINE MEASURES AND CHANGES OVER TIME, MAY BE A RISK FACTOR FOR COPD AND REDUCED LUNG FUNCTION. 2020 4 5312 42 PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS AND DNA METHYLATION OF GENES RELATED TO IMMUNE/INFLAMMATORY SYSTEM MARKERS: THE VA NORMATIVE AGING STUDY. OBJECTIVES: ALTHOUGH PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS HAVE BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH CHRONIC DISEASES SUCH AS CORONARY HEART DISEASE (CHD), THE UNDERLYING PATHWAYS FOR THESE ASSOCIATIONS HAVE YET TO BE ELUCIDATED. DNA METHYLATION HAS BEEN POSITED AS A MECHANISM LINKING PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS TO CHD RISK. IN A COHORT OF COMMUNITY-DWELLING ELDERLY MEN, WE EXPLORED THE ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS WITH DNA METHYLATION IN PROMOTER REGIONS OF MULTIPLE GENES INVOLVED IN IMMUNE/INFLAMMATORY PROCESSES RELATED TO ATHEROSCLEROSIS. DESIGN: PROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY. SETTING: GREATER BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS AREA. PARTICIPANTS: SAMPLES OF 538 TO 669 MEN PARTICIPATING IN THE NORMATIVE AGING STUDY COHORT WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASURES AND DNA METHYLATION MEASURES, COLLECTED ON 1-4 VISITS BETWEEN 1999 AND 2006 (MEAN AGE=72.7 YEARS AT FIRST VISIT). OUTCOME MEASURES: WE EXAMINED ANXIETY, DEPRESSION, HOSTILITY AND LIFE SATISFACTION AS PREDICTORS OF LEUCOCYTE GENE-SPECIFIC DNA METHYLATION. WE ESTIMATED REPEATED MEASURES LINEAR MIXED MODELS, CONTROLLING FOR AGE, SMOKING, EDUCATION, HISTORY OF HEART DISEASE, STROKE OR DIABETES, % LYMPHOCYTES, % MONOCYTES AND PLASMA FOLATE. RESULTS: PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS MEASURED BY ANXIETY, DEPRESSION AND HOSTILITY WAS POSITIVELY ASSOCIATED, AND HAPPINESS AND LIFE SATISFACTION WERE INVERSELY ASSOCIATED WITH AVERAGE INTERCELLULAR ADHESION MOLECULE-1 (ICAM-1) AND COAGULATION FACTOR III (F3) PROMOTER METHYLATION LEVELS. THERE WAS SOME EVIDENCE THAT HOSTILITY WAS POSITIVELY ASSOCIATED WITH TOLL-LIKE RECEPTOR 2 (TLR-2) PROMOTER METHYLATION, AND THAT LIFE SATISFACTION WAS INVERSELY ASSOCIATED WITH TLR-2 AND INDUCIBLE NITRIC OXIDE SYNTHASE (INOS) PROMOTER METHYLATION. WE OBSERVED LESS CONSISTENT AND SIGNIFICANT ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS AND AVERAGE METHYLATION FOR PROMOTERS OF THE GENES FOR GLUCOCORTICOID RECEPTOR (NR3C1), INTERFERON-GAMMA (IFN-GAMMA) AND INTERLEUKIN 6 (IL-6). CONCLUSIONS: THESE FINDINGS SUGGEST THAT POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS AFFECT DNA METHYLATION OF SELECTED GENES INVOLVED IN CHRONIC IMMUNE/INFLAMMATORY PROCESSES AND INFLAMMATION-RELATED ENDOTHELIAL DYSFUNCTION. SUCH EPIGENETIC CHANGES MAY REPRESENT BIOLOGICAL PATHWAYS THAT MEDIATE THE EFFECTS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS ON CHD. 2016 5 2150 35 EPIGENETIC MEASURES OF AGEING PREDICT THE PREVALENCE AND INCIDENCE OF LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH AND DISEASE BURDEN. BACKGROUND: INDIVIDUALS OF THE SAME CHRONOLOGICAL AGE DISPLAY DIFFERENT RATES OF BIOLOGICAL AGEING. A NUMBER OF MEASURES OF BIOLOGICAL AGE HAVE BEEN PROPOSED WHICH HARNESS AGE-RELATED CHANGES IN DNA METHYLATION PROFILES. THESE MEASURES INCLUDE FIVE 'EPIGENETIC CLOCKS' WHICH PROVIDE AN INDEX OF HOW MUCH AN INDIVIDUAL'S BIOLOGICAL AGE DIFFERS FROM THEIR CHRONOLOGICAL AGE AT THE TIME OF MEASUREMENT. THE FIVE CLOCKS ENCOMPASS METHYLATION-BASED PREDICTORS OF CHRONOLOGICAL AGE (HORVATHAGE, HANNUMAGE), ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY (DNAM PHENOAGE, DNAM GRIMAGE) AND TELOMERE LENGTH (DNAM TELOMERE LENGTH). A SIXTH EPIGENETIC MEASURE OF AGEING DIFFERS FROM THESE CLOCKS IN THAT IT ACTS AS A SPEEDOMETER PROVIDING A SINGLE TIME-POINT MEASUREMENT OF THE PACE OF AN INDIVIDUAL'S BIOLOGICAL AGEING. THIS MEASURE OF AGEING IS TERMED DUNEDINPOAM. IN THIS STUDY, WE TEST THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THESE SIX EPIGENETIC MEASURES OF AGEING AND THE PREVALENCE AND INCIDENCE OF THE LEADING CAUSES OF DISEASE BURDEN AND MORTALITY IN HIGH-INCOME COUNTRIES (N 450 000 CPG SITES IN 40 NON-SMOKING WOMEN (AGE 40-80) DIFFERENTIALLY EXPOSED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CD FROM THAILAND. BASED ON SPECIFIC GRAVITY ADJUSTED URINARY CD, WE CLASSIFIED THEM AS HIGH (HE) AND LOW (LE) EXPOSED AND AGE-MATCHED WITHIN 5 YEARS. URINARY CD WAS DEFINED AS BELOW 2 MICROG/L IN THE LE GROUP. WE PREDICTED EPIGENETIC AGE (DNAM-AGE) USING TWO PUBLISHED METHODS BY HORVATH AND HANNUM AND EXAMINED THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EPIGENETIC AGE AND CHRONOLOGIC AGE (DELTAAGE). WE ASSESSED DIFFERENCES BY CD EXPOSURE USING LINEAR MIXED MODELS ADJUSTED FOR ESTIMATED WHITE BLOOD CELL PROPORTIONS, BMI, AND URINARY CREATININE. WE IDENTIFIED 213 AGE-ASSOCIATED CPG SITES IN OUR POPULATION (P < 10(-4)). COUNTERINTUITIVELY, THE MEAN DELTAAGE WAS SMALLER IN HE VS. LE (HANNUM: 3.6 VS. 7.6 YEARS, P = 0.0093; HORVATH: 2.4 VS. 4.5 YEARS, P = 0.1308). THE CD EXPOSED GROUP WAS ASSOCIATED WITH CHANGES IN METHYLATION (P < 0.05) AT 12, 8, AND 20 AGE-ASSOCIATED SITES IDENTIFIED IN OUR POPULATION, HANNUM, AND HORVATH. FROM THE RESULTS OF THIS PILOT STUDY, ELEVATED CD EXPOSURE IS ASSOCIATED WITH METHYLATION CHANGES AT AGE-ASSOCIATED SITES AND SMALLER DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DNAM-AGE AND CHRONOLOGIC AGE, IN CONTRAST TO EXPECTED AGE-ACCELERATING EFFECTS. CD MAY MODIFY EPIGENETIC AGING, AND BIOMARKERS OF AGING WARRANT FURTHER INVESTIGATION WHEN EXAMINING CD AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRONIC DISEASE AND MORTALITY. 2017 20 6714 25 VISION OF RESEARCH ON HUMAN LINEAR GROWTH. THE HUMAN BODY GROWS IN LENGTH FROM CONCEPTION TO THE MAXIMAL ADULT HEIGHT OVER TWO DECADES. THE SHORTEST MALE POPULATION AVERAGES APPROXIMATELY 150 CM AND THE TALLEST APPROXIMATELY 183 CM. NONETHELESS THE DIMENSIONS OF HEAD AND TRUNK ARE HIGHLY COMPARABLE, WITH THE VAST DIFFERENCE IN THE LEG LENGTH. STUNTING IS A PERSONAL CONDITION IN WHICH AN INDIVIDUAL HAS A STANDING HEIGHT-FOR-AGE (HAZ) OF LESS THAN TWO STANDARD DEVIATIONS OF THE STANDARD CURVE MEDIAN. IT IS ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASED MORTALITY, MORBIDITY, AND FUNCTIONAL DEFICITS. THE PROCESS OF LOSING RELATIVE STATURE IS KNOWN AS LINEAR GROWTH RETARDATION, FIRST ATTRIBUTED TO CHRONIC PROTEIN DEFICIENCY, THEN TO AN ASSORTMENT OF MICRONUTRIENT DEFICIENCIES, AND MOST RECENTLY TO INFLAMMATION FROM UNHYGIENIC ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS. PUBLIC HEALTH INTERVENTION TRIALS RESPONDING TO EACH OF THESE POSSIBILITIES HAVE FAILED TO PRODUCE TRUE REVERSAL RESPONSES MEASURED IN THE 10S OF CENTIMETERS. AS TO BIOLOGICAL INSIGHTS, THERE IS NO CONVENIENT WAY TO SEPARATE WEIGHT FROM LENGTH GROWTH WITH SONOGRAPHIC MONITORING, BUT A THIRD OF INFANTS CAN BE BORN STUNTED. NORMATIVE GROWTH (STANDARD CURVES) COMPETES WITH EPIGENETIC ADAPTATION (PROGRAMMING) AS THE BEACON FOR IN UTERO GROWTH. MAJOR INVESTMENTS INTO FIELD TRIALS ALLOW US TO DISCARD MULTIPLE MICRONUTRIENTS AND WATER/SANITATION/HYGIENE INTERVENTIONS AS MEASURES TO REVERSE ESTABLISHED STUNTING. THE PREPONDERANCE OF EVIDENCE IS AGAINST CATCH-UP GROWTH DURING PUBERTY. FUTURE PUBLICATIONS WILL BE IN THE CONCEPTUAL DOMAIN, RESOLVING METRICS, WHILE THE FULL RANGE OF STIMULI AND EXPOSURES IMPEDING GROWTH WILL BE ELUCIDATED. ADVANCES IN MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES IN ANTHROPOMETRY AND IMMUNOLOGY AND ENDOCRINOLOGY WILL BE MOBILIZED TO THE LITERATURE. 2019