Blood transcriptomic associations of epigenetic age in adolescents
Epigenetic aging in early life remains poorly characterized, and patterns of gene expression can provide biologically meaningful insights. Blood DNA methylation was measured using the Illumina EPICv1.0 array and RNA sequencing was performed in blood in 174 adolescent participants (age range: 14–15 y...
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Taylor & Francis Group
2025-12-01
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| Series: | Epigenetics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15592294.2025.2503824 |
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| author | Dennis Khodasevich Anne K Bozack Saher Daredia Julianna Deardorff Kim G Harley Brenda Eskenazi Weihong Guo Nina Holland Andres Cardenas |
| author_facet | Dennis Khodasevich Anne K Bozack Saher Daredia Julianna Deardorff Kim G Harley Brenda Eskenazi Weihong Guo Nina Holland Andres Cardenas |
| author_sort | Dennis Khodasevich |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Epigenetic aging in early life remains poorly characterized, and patterns of gene expression can provide biologically meaningful insights. Blood DNA methylation was measured using the Illumina EPICv1.0 array and RNA sequencing was performed in blood in 174 adolescent participants (age range: 14–15 years) from the CHAMACOS cohort. Thirteen widely used epigenetic clocks were calculated, and their associations with transcriptome-wide RNA expression were tested using the limma-voom pipeline. We found evidence for substantial shared associations with RNA expression between different epigenetic clocks, including differential expression of MYO6 and ZBTB38 across five clocks. The epiTOC2, principal component (PC) PhenoAge, Hannum, PedBE and PC Hannum clocks were associated with differential expression of the highest number of RNAs, exhibiting associations with 22, 8, 5, 3, and 2 transcripts respectively. Generally, biological clocks were associated with differential expression of more genes than chronological clocks, and PC clocks were associated with differential expression of more genes relative to their CpG-trained counterparts. A total of 17 associations in our study were replicated in an independent adult sample (age range: 40–54 years). Our findings support the biological relevance of epigenetic clocks in adolescents and provide direction for selection of epigenetic ageing biomarkers in adolescent research. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-cccfb58a142e4fe680376b9fb3447e48 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 1559-2294 1559-2308 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Epigenetics |
| spelling | doaj-art-cccfb58a142e4fe680376b9fb3447e482025-08-20T02:31:46ZengTaylor & Francis GroupEpigenetics1559-22941559-23082025-12-0120110.1080/15592294.2025.2503824Blood transcriptomic associations of epigenetic age in adolescentsDennis Khodasevich0Anne K Bozack1Saher Daredia2Julianna Deardorff3Kim G Harley4Brenda Eskenazi5Weihong Guo6Nina Holland7Andres Cardenas8Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USADepartment of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USADivision of Epidemiology, Berkeley Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USACenter for Environmental Research and Community Health (CERCH), Berkeley Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USACenter for Environmental Research and Community Health (CERCH), Berkeley Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USACenter for Environmental Research and Community Health (CERCH), Berkeley Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USACenter for Environmental Research and Community Health (CERCH), Berkeley Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USACenter for Environmental Research and Community Health (CERCH), Berkeley Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USADepartment of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USAEpigenetic aging in early life remains poorly characterized, and patterns of gene expression can provide biologically meaningful insights. Blood DNA methylation was measured using the Illumina EPICv1.0 array and RNA sequencing was performed in blood in 174 adolescent participants (age range: 14–15 years) from the CHAMACOS cohort. Thirteen widely used epigenetic clocks were calculated, and their associations with transcriptome-wide RNA expression were tested using the limma-voom pipeline. We found evidence for substantial shared associations with RNA expression between different epigenetic clocks, including differential expression of MYO6 and ZBTB38 across five clocks. The epiTOC2, principal component (PC) PhenoAge, Hannum, PedBE and PC Hannum clocks were associated with differential expression of the highest number of RNAs, exhibiting associations with 22, 8, 5, 3, and 2 transcripts respectively. Generally, biological clocks were associated with differential expression of more genes than chronological clocks, and PC clocks were associated with differential expression of more genes relative to their CpG-trained counterparts. A total of 17 associations in our study were replicated in an independent adult sample (age range: 40–54 years). Our findings support the biological relevance of epigenetic clocks in adolescents and provide direction for selection of epigenetic ageing biomarkers in adolescent research.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15592294.2025.2503824Epigeneticstranscriptomeadolescentepigenetic aging |
| spellingShingle | Dennis Khodasevich Anne K Bozack Saher Daredia Julianna Deardorff Kim G Harley Brenda Eskenazi Weihong Guo Nina Holland Andres Cardenas Blood transcriptomic associations of epigenetic age in adolescents Epigenetics Epigenetics transcriptome adolescent epigenetic aging |
| title | Blood transcriptomic associations of epigenetic age in adolescents |
| title_full | Blood transcriptomic associations of epigenetic age in adolescents |
| title_fullStr | Blood transcriptomic associations of epigenetic age in adolescents |
| title_full_unstemmed | Blood transcriptomic associations of epigenetic age in adolescents |
| title_short | Blood transcriptomic associations of epigenetic age in adolescents |
| title_sort | blood transcriptomic associations of epigenetic age in adolescents |
| topic | Epigenetics transcriptome adolescent epigenetic aging |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/15592294.2025.2503824 |
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