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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Aging
Sec. Genetics, Genomics and Epigenomics of Aging
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fragi.2024.1493406
This article is part of the Research Topic Aging Epigenome and Longevity View all articles

Assessing the utility of epigenetic clocks for health prediction in South Korean

Provisionally accepted
Dong Jun Kim Dong Jun Kim Joon Ho Kang Joon Ho Kang Ji-Woong Kim Ji-Woong Kim Sun Bin Kim Sun Bin Kim Young Kee Lee Young Kee Lee Myeong Jae Cheon Myeong Jae Cheon Byung-Chul Lee Byung-Chul Lee *
  • Genoplan Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Epigenetic clocks have been developed to track both chronological age and biological age, which is defined by physiological biomarkers and the risk of adverse health outcomes. Epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) has been found to predict various diseases, aging-related factors, and mortality. However, epigenetic clocks have predominantly been developed with individuals of European or Hispanic ancestry, and their association with health outcomes and environmental factors has not been sufficiently assessed in East Asian populations. Here, we investigated nine epigenetic clocks: five trained on chronological age (first-generation) and four on biological age (second-generation), using DNA methylation data from blood samples of South Koreans. EAAs of secondgeneration epigenetic clocks reflected the risk of chronic diseases (type 2 diabetes and hypertension), levels of health-related blood markers (alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, high density lipoprotein, triglyceride, and high sensitivity C-reactive protein), and lung functions (percentage of predicted FEV1 and percentage of predicted FVC), while EAAs of first generation clocks did not. Using follow-up data, we also found that EAAs of second-generation clocks were associated with the time to onset risks of chronic diseases. Health behavior factors (drinking, smoking, exercise, body mass index, and waist-hip ratio), socioeconomic status (income level and educational attainment), and psychosocial status were associated with EAAs of secondgeneration clocks, while only smoking status was associated with EAAs of first-generation clocks. We conducted validation analyses in an independent South Korean cohort and replicated the association of EAAs with health outcomes and environmental factors. Age acceleration of epigenetic clocks is influenced by various environmental factors and can serve as an effective predictor of health in South Korea.

    Keywords: epigenetic clock, lifestyle, Methylation, healthcare, Aging

    Received: 09 Sep 2024; Accepted: 13 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kim, Kang, Kim, Kim, Lee, Cheon and Lee. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Byung-Chul Lee, Genoplan Korea, Seoul, Republic of Korea

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