Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, USA.
Prev Sci. 2023 Oct;24(7):1398-1423. doi: 10.1007/s11121-023-01576-4. Epub 2023 Jul 21.
Biological age, measured via epigenetic clocks, offers a unique and useful tool for prevention scientists to explore the short- and long-term implications of age deviations for health, development, and behavior. The use of epigenetic clocks in pediatric research is rapidly increasing, and there is a need to review the landscape of this work to understand the utility of these clocks for prevention scientists. We summarize the current state of the literature on the use of specific epigenetic clocks in childhood. Using systematic review methods, we identified studies published through February 2023 that used one of three epigenetic clocks as a measure of biological aging. These epigenetic clocks could either be used as a predictor of health outcomes or as a health outcome of interest. The database search identified 982 records, 908 of which were included in a title and abstract review. After full-text screening, 68 studies were eligible for inclusion. While findings were somewhat mixed, a majority of included studies found significant associations between the epigenetic clock used and the health outcome of interest or between an exposure and the epigenetic clock used. From these results, we propose the use of epigenetic clocks as a tool to understand how exposures impact biologic aging pathways and development in early life, as well as to monitor the effectiveness of preventive interventions that aim to reduce exposure and associated adverse health outcomes.
生物年龄可以通过表观遗传时钟进行测量，这为预防科学家探索年龄偏差对健康、发育和行为的短期和长期影响提供了一个独特而有用的工具。表观遗传时钟在儿科研究中的应用正在迅速增加，因此有必要回顾这项工作的现状，以了解这些时钟对预防科学家的实用性。我们总结了目前关于在儿童期使用特定表观遗传时钟的文献状况。我们采用系统评价方法，确定了截至 2023 年 2 月发表的使用三种表观遗传时钟之一来衡量生物衰老的研究。这些表观遗传时钟可以用作健康结果的预测指标，也可以作为感兴趣的健康结果。数据库检索共确定了 982 条记录，其中 908 条记录经过标题和摘要筛选。经过全文筛选，有 68 项研究符合纳入标准。尽管研究结果有些混杂，但大多数纳入的研究发现，所使用的表观遗传时钟与感兴趣的健康结果之间，或暴露与所使用的表观遗传时钟之间存在显著关联。根据这些结果，我们提出使用表观遗传时钟作为一种工具，以了解暴露如何影响早期生命中的生物衰老途径和发育，并监测旨在减少暴露和相关不良健康结果的预防干预措施的效果。
