Department of Pediatrics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL 35233, USA.
Aging (Albany NY). 2023 Jan 18;15(2):513-523. doi: 10.18632/aging.204492.
Obesity increases the risk of Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, several types of cancer, and other age-related disorders. Among older adults, obesity is also related to epigenetic age, typically measured with DNA methylation (DNAm). Because less is known about obesity and epigenetic aging earlier in the lifespan, this study examined the relationship between obesity and DNAm in young adulthood and whether these relationships vary by sex.
A cross-sectional community sample of 290 healthy young adults (mean age 27.39 years, 60% female; 80% African American, 18% White) had their BMI and waist circumference measured. Four epigenetic age estimators were derived from salivary DNA: Hannum DNAm, Horvath DNAm, Phenoage DNAm, and GrimAge DNAm. Sociodemographic covariates included age, sex, race, parental education, and income-to-needs ratio.
After adjusting for covariates, higher BMI and waist were associated with higher DNAm PhenoAge in both sexes, with a stronger effect on BMI in males (β = 0.35, < .001) compared to females (β = 0.13, = .002). Higher waist, but not BMI, was associated with higher Horvath DNA methylation age. Both BMI and waist circumference were associated with higher Hannum DNAm age in men but not in women. Neither BMI nor waist circumference were related to GrimAge.
This study extends prior research by linking obesity with accelerated epigenetic aging in young adulthood, replicating the associations across two measures of obesity and four indices of salivary epigenetic aging. The results add to evidence that higher BMI accelerates aging early in the lifespan.
肥胖会增加 2 型糖尿病、心血管疾病、多种癌症和其他与年龄相关的疾病的风险。在老年人中，肥胖也与表观遗传年龄有关，通常通过 DNA 甲基化（DNAm）来衡量。由于人们对生命早期肥胖和表观遗传衰老知之甚少，因此本研究探讨了肥胖与年轻成年人 DNAm 之间的关系，以及这些关系是否因性别而异。
一项横断面社区研究纳入了 290 名健康的年轻成年人（平均年龄 27.39 岁，60%为女性；80%为非裔美国人，18%为白人），测量了他们的 BMI 和腰围。从唾液 DNA 中得出了四种表观遗传年龄估算值：Hannum DNAm、Horvath DNAm、Phenoage DNAm 和 GrimAge DNAm。社会人口学协变量包括年龄、性别、种族、父母教育程度和收入需求比。
在调整了协变量后，较高的 BMI 和腰围与男女的 DNAm PhenoAge 呈正相关，男性的影响更强（β=0.35， <.001），而女性的影响较弱（β=0.13， =.002）。较高的腰围与 Horvath DNA 甲基化年龄的增加有关，但 BMI 与较高的 Horvath DNA 甲基化年龄无关。较高的 BMI 和腰围与男性的 Hannum DNAm 年龄增加有关，但与女性无关。BMI 和腰围均与 GrimAge 无关。
本研究通过将肥胖与年轻成年人的加速表观遗传衰老联系起来，在两个肥胖测量指标和四个唾液表观遗传衰老指数上复制了这些关联，扩展了先前的研究。结果增加了证据表明，较高的 BMI 会加速生命早期的衰老。
