England-Mason Gillian
Department of Pediatrics, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Owerko Centre, Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Essays Biochem. 2025 Aug 4. doi: 10.1042/EBC20253013.
Following a variety of early environmental experiences and exposures, epigenetic modifications such as DNA methylation are proposed as candidate mechanisms that contribute to health and disease across the lifespan. Epigenetic clocks are a type of aging biomarker that can offer insight into age-related changes associated with early environmental exposures. This review provides a brief overview of epigenetic clocks that are readily available for use with perinatal and/or pediatric samples, as well as highlights some recent research that has studied the associations between early environmental chemical exposures and epigenetic aging rates. Broadly, the easily accessible epigenetic clocks can be categorized as chronological age estimators and gestational age estimators, but some clocks were developed for use with specific tissues and/or age groups. Previous environmental epidemiology studies have shown that early environmental exposures such as air pollutants and endocrine-disrupting chemicals are associated with altered epigenetic aging rates in perinatal and pediatric populations. However, more research is needed that examines how factors such as exposure level, timing of exposure, and sex may affect the direction and magnitude of associations. This review concludes with some recommendations and future directions for the use of epigenetic clocks in environmental epigenetics. Overall, epigenetic clocks are promising, non-causal biomarkers of early exposures that can be examined in relation to environmental chemicals, health and disease outcomes, and as biological mediators. Future research could help determine whether these clocks hold promise as informative biomarkers that reflect developmental epigenotoxicity following early exposure to environmental chemicals.
在经历了各种早期环境体验和暴露后，诸如DNA甲基化等表观遗传修饰被认为是在整个生命周期中影响健康和疾病的潜在机制。表观遗传时钟是一种衰老生物标志物，能够揭示与早期环境暴露相关的年龄变化。本综述简要概述了可用于围产期和/或儿科样本的表观遗传时钟，并着重介绍了一些近期研究，这些研究探讨了早期环境化学物质暴露与表观遗传衰老速率之间的关联。总体而言，易于获取的表观遗传时钟可分为实足年龄估计器和胎龄估计器，但有些时钟是针对特定组织和/或年龄组开发的。以往的环境流行病学研究表明，早期环境暴露，如空气污染物和内分泌干扰化学物质，与围产期和儿科人群表观遗传衰老速率的改变有关。然而，还需要更多研究来考察暴露水平、暴露时间和性别等因素如何影响关联的方向和程度。本综述最后给出了在环境表观遗传学中使用表观遗传时钟的一些建议和未来方向。总的来说，表观遗传时钟是有前景的、非因果性的早期暴露生物标志物，可用于研究环境化学物质、健康和疾病结局，并作为生物介质。未来的研究有助于确定这些时钟是否有望成为反映早期接触环境化学物质后发育表观遗传毒性的信息丰富的生物标志物。
