Epigenetic profile of Japanese supercentenarians: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND

Centenarians and supercentenarians with exceptional longevity are excellent models for research towards improvements of healthy life expectancy. Extensive research regarding the maintenance and reduction of epigenetic age has provided insights into increasing healthy longevity. To this end, we explored the epigenetic signatures reflecting hallmarks of exceptional healthy longevity, including avoidance of age-related diseases and cognitive functional decline.

METHODS

In this cross-sectional study, we enrolled Japanese non-centenarians (eligible participants aged 20-80 years) from the Tohoku Medical Megabank Community-Based Cohort Study and centenarians and supercentenarians (aged 101-115 years) from the Tokyo Centenarian Study and the Japanese Semi-supercentenarian Study. We assessed participants' whole-blood DNA methylation profiles and then developed sex-specific and non-specific first-generation epigenetic clocks by elastic net regression, calculated individuals' epigenetic ages, and assessed their age acceleration. We also screened for age-related CpG sites in non-centenarians by epigenome-wide linear regression analyses and ANOVA. We subsequently investigated which CpG sites in centenarians and supercentenarians had DNA methylation patterns following the age-related findings obtained from non-centenarians and which did not. We further characterised CpG sites with hypermethylation or hypomethylation in the centenarians and supercentenarians using enrichment and protein-protein interaction network analyses.

FINDINGS

We enrolled 421 non-centenarians (231 [55%] women and 190 [45%] men; age range 20-78 years), recruited between May 20, 2013, and March 31, 2016, and 94 centenarians and supercentenarians (66 women [70%] and 28 [30%] men; age range 101-115 years), recruited between Jan 20, 2001, and April 17, 2018. Non-sex-specific epigenetic clock showed the highest accuracy (r=0·96) based on which centenarians and supercentenarians had negative epigenetic age acceleration. Epigenome-wide association analyses further showed that centenarians and supercentenarians had younger-than-expected epigenetic states (DNA methylation profiles similar to those of non-centenarians) for 557 CpG sites enriched in cancer-related and neuropsychiatric-related genes, whereas these individuals had advanced (or older) epigenetic states for 163 CpG sites represented by genes related to TGF-β signalling, which is involved in anti-inflammatory responses and known to contribute to healthy ageing.

INTERPRETATION

These results indicate that exceptionally healthy longevity depends not only on maintaining young epigenetic states but also on advanced states of specific epigenetic regions.

FUNDING

The Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, KDDI Research, and Keio University.

TRANSLATION

For the Japanese translation of the abstract see Supplementary Materials section.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of interests SK reports a grant from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), unrelated to the current work. MN reports salary support from KDDI Corporation, the parent company of KDDI Research. EA reports a grant from JSPS, unrelated to the current work. RO reports a grant from JSPS unrelated to the current work. HOh reports grants from JSPS and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED), unrelated to the current work. SU reports a grant from JSPS, unrelated to the current work. TH reports participation in the board of Genome Analytics Japan, unrelated to of the current work. YS reports a grant from JSPS, unrelated to the current work. YO-Y reports a grant from JSPS, unrelated to the current work. YAr reports grants from JSPS and AMED, unrelated to the current work. AY reports salary support from KDDI. HOk reports involvement as a scientific advisor of SanBio and K Pharma and a grant from AMED, unrelated to of the current work. MS reports grants from JSPS, unrelated to the current work, and from AMED for the current work. YK reports grants from JSPS and AMED, unrelated to the current work, and from Keio University for the current work. AS reports grants from JSPS, AMED, National Cancer Center Japan, IQVIA, and Fujifilm, unrelated to the current work. All other authors declare no competing interests.