Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: Ageing is the accumulation of changes and decline of function of organisms over time. The concept and biomarkers of biological age have been established, notably DNA methylation-based clocks. The emergence of single-cell DNA methylation profiling methods opens the possibility of studying the biological age of individual cells. Here, we generate a large single-cell DNA methylation and transcriptome dataset from mouse peripheral blood samples, spanning a broad range of ages. The number of genes expressed increases with age, but gene-specific changes are small. We next develop scEpiAge, a single-cell DNA methylation age predictor, which can accurately predict age in (very sparse) publicly available datasets, and also in single cells. DNA methylation age distribution is wider than technically expected, indicating epigenetic age heterogeneity and functional differences. Our work provides a foundation for single-cell and sparse data epigenetic age predictors, validates their functionality and highlights epigenetic heterogeneity during ageing.
Source: Nature Communications
Institutions: University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, German Cancer Research Center, Oncode Institute, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Babraham Institute, Altos Labs, ETH Zurich, Center for NanoScience, Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Wellcome Sanger Institute, King's College London
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,633
Awards: To study epigenetic mechanisms that create heterogeneity and functional diversity in stem cells, development and between individuals, To study epigenetic mechanisms regulating lineage commitment and cell potency, G1843385021, G2163666726, G2517852510, G434337789, G7316932277, G7567962354, Elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying brite adipocyte specification and activation
OpenAlex ID: W4402093357