Perez-Correa Juan-Felipe, Tharmapalan Vithurithra, Geiger Hartmut, Wagner Wolfgang
Institute for Stem Cell Biology, RWTH Aachen University Medical School, Aachen, Germany.
Helmholtz Institute for Biomedical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University Medical School, Aachen, Germany.
Front Cell Dev Biol. 2022 Jun 3;10:902857. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2022.902857. eCollection 2022.
Aging of mice can be tracked by DNA methylation changes at specific sites in the genome. In this study, we used the recently released Infinium Mouse Methylation BeadChip to compare such epigenetic modifications in C57BL/6 (B6) and DBA/2J (DBA) mice. We observed marked differences in age-associated DNA methylation in these commonly used inbred mouse strains, indicating that epigenetic clocks for one strain cannot be simply applied to other strains without further verification. In B6 mice age-associated hypomethylation prevailed with focused hypermethylation at CpG islands, whereas in DBA mice CpG islands revealed rather hypomethylation upon aging. Interestingly, the CpGs with highest age-correlation were still overlapping in B6 and DBA mice and included the genes , , , and . Notably, and were also top candidates in previous studies based on whole genome deep sequencing approaches. Furthermore, , , and revealed highly significant age-associated DNA methylation in the homologous regions in human. Subsequently, we used pyrosequencing of the four relevant regions to establish a targeted epigenetic clock that provided very high correlation with chronological age in independent cohorts of B6 ( = 0.98) and DBA ( = 0.91). Taken together, the methylome differs extensively between B6 and DBA mice, while prominent age-associated changes are conserved among these strains and even in humans. Our new targeted epigenetic clock with 4 CpGs provides a versatile tool for other researchers analyzing aging in mice.
小鼠的衰老可以通过基因组中特定位点的DNA甲基化变化来追踪。在本研究中,我们使用最近发布的Infinium小鼠甲基化芯片来比较C57BL/6(B6)和DBA/2J(DBA)小鼠中的这种表观遗传修饰。我们在这些常用的近交系小鼠品系中观察到与年龄相关的DNA甲基化存在显著差异,这表明一个品系的表观遗传时钟未经进一步验证不能简单地应用于其他品系。在B6小鼠中,与年龄相关的低甲基化占主导,CpG岛出现集中的高甲基化,而在DBA小鼠中,CpG岛在衰老时呈现出相当程度的低甲基化。有趣的是,在B6和DBA小鼠中,与年龄相关性最高的CpG仍然重叠,包括基因 、 、 和 。值得注意的是,在先前基于全基因组深度测序方法的研究中, 和 也是顶级候选基因。此外, 、 和 在人类同源区域显示出与年龄高度相关的DNA甲基化。随后,我们对四个相关区域进行焦磷酸测序,以建立一个靶向表观遗传时钟,该时钟在B6( = 0.98)和DBA( = 0.91)的独立队列中与实际年龄具有非常高的相关性。综上所述,B6和DBA小鼠之间的甲基化组存在广泛差异,而这些品系甚至在人类中都存在显著的与年龄相关的保守变化。我们新的含4个CpG的靶向表观遗传时钟为其他研究小鼠衰老的研究人员提供了一种通用工具。