Distinct biological ages across individuals' various organs and systems


Date:
March 8, 2022
Source:
Cell Press
Summary:
It's common to say that someone looks either younger or older than
their chronological age, but aging is more than skin deep. Our
various organs and systems may have different ages, at least from a
biological perspective. Investigators used biomarkers, statistical
modeling, and other techniques to develop tools for measuring the
biological ages of various organ systems. Based on their findings,
the researchers report that there are multiple 'clocks' within
the body that vary widely based on factors including genetics and
lifestyle in each individual.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
It's common to say that someone looks either younger or older than
their chronological age, but aging is more than skin deep. Our various
organs and systems may have different ages, at least from a biological perspective. In a study published March 8 in the journal Cell Reports, an international team of investigators used biomarkers, statistical modeling,
and other techniques to develop tools for measuring the biological ages
of various organ systems. Based on their findings, the researchers report
that there are multiple "clocks" within the body that vary widely based
on factors including genetics and lifestyle in each individual.


==========================================================================
"Our study used approaches that can help improve our understanding
of aging and -- more importantly -- could be used some day in real
healthcare practice," says co-corresponding author Xun Xu of the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) and China National GeneBank (CNGB) in Shenzhen,
China. "We used biomarkers that could be identified from blood and stool samples plus some measurements from a routine body checkup." The concept
of evaluating people's biological aging rates has been around since the
1970s, but earlier studies were focused either on developing methods for estimating one centralized aging index or studying the molecular aging biomarkers using tissues and cell cultures outside the body.

"There has been a lack of practical applications in a population-based
sample for precisely estimating the aging rates of live people's
organs and systems," says co-corresponding author Xiuqing Zhang, also
of BGI and CNGB. "So we decided to design one." To do this research,
the investigators recruited 4,066 volunteers living in the Shenzhen
area to supply blood and stool samples and facial skin images and to
undergo physical fitness examinations. The volunteers were between the
ages of 20 and 45 years; 52% were female and 48% were male. "Most human
aging studies have been conducted on older populations and in cohorts
with a high incidence of chronic diseases," says co-corresponding author
Brian Kennedy of the National University of Singapore. "Because the aging process in young healthy adults is largely unknown and some studies have suggested that age-related changes could be detected in people as young
as their 20s, we decided to focus on this age range." In total, 403
features were measured, including 74 metabolomic features, 34 clinical biochemistry features, 36 immune repertoire features, 15 body composition features, 8 physical fitness features, 10 electroencephalography features,
16 facial skin features, and 210 gut microbiome features. These features
were then classified into nine categories, including cardiovascular-
related, renal-related, liver-related, sex hormone, facial skin,
nutrition/ metabolism, immune-related, physical fitness-related, and
gut microbiome features.

Because of the difference in sex-specific effects, the groups were divided
into male and female. The investigators then developed an aging-rate
index that could be used to correlate different bodily systems with each
other. Based on their findings, they classified the volunteers either
as aging faster or aging slower than their chronological age.

Overall, they discovered that biological ages of different organs and
systems had diverse correlations, and not all were expected. Although
healthy weight and high physical fitness levels were expected to have a positive impact, the investigators were surprised by other findings. For example, having a more diverse gut microbiota indicated a younger gut
while at the same time having a negative impact on the aging of the
kidneys, possibly because the diversity of species causes the kidneys
to do more work.

The investigators also used their approach to look at other datasets,
including the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from
the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Chinese
Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey, which includes data on more than
2,000 centenarians with matched middle-aged controls. In addition, they
looked at single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to determine whether differences could be explained by genetic factors. There, they did find
certain pathways that could be associated with aging rates.

The researchers plan to regularly follow up with the study participants
to track the development of aging and validate their findings. Future
studies will use additional approaches for classifying features of aging
and studying the interactions between organ systems.

They also plan to use single-cell technology to look at programmed aging
in more detail. "It's important to capture the cell-to-cell variation in
an aging individual, as this will tell us important information about
the heterogeneity within cell types and tissues and provide important
insights into aging mechanisms," says co-corresponding author Claudio Franceschi of Lobachevsky State University in Russia.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Cell_Press. Note: Content may be
edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Nie, Li, and Li et al. Distinct biological ages of organs and
systems
identified from a multi-omics study. Cell Reports, 2022 DOI:
10.1016/ j.celrep.2022.110459 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220308115810.htm

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