Sanders Faye, Baltramonaityte Vilte, Donohoe Gary, Davies Neil M, Dunn Erin C, Cecil Charlotte A M, Walton Esther
Department of Psychology, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK.
School of Psychology, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 22;15(1):26609. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-11350-x.
Recent research suggests biological age, based on epigenetic or neuroimaging measures, may predict health traits in adulthood more accurately than chronological age. However, it is unclear if these findings apply earlier in life. We aimed to characterise the performance and interdependence between measures of biological age in young people, leveraging a longitudinal subsample from the population-based ALSPAC cohort (n = 386). We derived four epigenetic age measures from blood samples in young people (17-19 years) and a measure of brain age derived from structural neuroimaging data (18-24 years). We examined associations between measures of biological age, and relationships with five measures of physical, cognitive and mental health (8-18 years). We found little evidence for an association between brain age and epigenetic age measures, after accounting for age, sex, cell type, array and study (beta range: -0.59 to 0.59, all p > 0.05). Increased smoking was associated with advanced epigenetic age (PACE and Zhang clock), and increased BMI with advanced EpiAge (all p < 0.05), but not brain age. Depressive symptoms and cognitive ability were unrelated to all measures of biological age. Our findings highlight the variability of epigenetic- and brain-based age measures in young people, emphasizing the importance of tracking ageing in younger populations.
近期研究表明，基于表观遗传学或神经影像学测量得出的生物学年龄，可能比实际年龄更准确地预测成年期的健康特征。然而，尚不清楚这些发现是否适用于生命早期。我们旨在利用基于人群的阿冯纵向父母与儿童队列研究（ALSPAC）中的一个纵向子样本（n = 386），来描述年轻人生物学年龄测量指标之间的表现及相互依存关系。我们从年轻人（17 - 19岁）的血液样本中得出了四种表观遗传学年龄测量指标，并从结构神经影像学数据（18 - 24岁）中得出了一种脑年龄测量指标。我们研究了生物学年龄测量指标之间的关联，以及它们与身体、认知和心理健康的五项测量指标（8 - 18岁）之间的关系。在考虑了年龄、性别、细胞类型、阵列和研究因素后，我们几乎没有发现脑年龄与表观遗传学年龄测量指标之间存在关联的证据（β范围：-0.59至0.59，所有p > 0.05）。吸烟增加与表观遗传学年龄（PACE和张时钟）增加有关，体重指数增加与EpiAge增加有关（所有p < 0.05），但与脑年龄无关。抑郁症状和认知能力与所有生物学年龄测量指标均无关。我们的研究结果凸显了年轻人中基于表观遗传学和大脑的年龄测量指标的变异性，强调了在较年轻人群中追踪衰老的重要性。
