An epigenome-wide association study of sex-specific chronological ageing
By
Daniel L. McCartney,
Robert F Hillary,
Qian Zhang,
Anna J Stevenson,
Rosie M Walker,
Mairead L. Bermingham,
Stewart W Morris,
Archie Campbell,
Alison Murray,
Heather C Whalley,
David J. Porteous,
Kathryn L Evans,
Tamir Chandra,
Ian J Deary,
Andrew M McIntosh,
Peter M. Visscher,
Allan F. McRae,
Riccardo E Marioni
Posted 11 Apr 2019
bioRxiv DOI: 10.1101/606020
(published DOI: 10.1186/s13073-019-0693-z)
Introduction: Advanced age is associated with cognitive and physical decline, and is a major risk factor for a multitude of disorders including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. There is also a gap in life-expectancy between males and females. DNA methylation differences have been shown to be associated with both age and sex. Here, we investigate age-by-sex differences in DNA methylation in an unrelated cohort of 2,586 individuals between the ages of 18 and 87 years. Methods: Genome-wide DNA methylation was measured on the Illumina HumanMethylationEPIC beadchip in a subset of unrelated individuals from the Generation Scotland cohort. Mixed linear model-based analyses were performed to investigate the relationship between DNA methylation and an interaction term between age and sex, as well as chronological age. Results: At a genome-wide significance level of P < 3.6 x 10-8, 14 loci were associated with the age-by-sex interaction term, the majority of which were X-linked (n = 12). Seven of these loci were annotated to genes. The site with the greatest difference mapped to GAGE10, an X-linked gene. Here, DNA methylation levels remained stable across the male adult age range (DNA methylation x age r = 0.02), but decreased across female adult age range (DNA methylation x age r = -0.61). The seven age-by-sex-associated genes were enriched among differentially-expressed genes in lung, liver, testis and blood. Conclusion: The majority of differences in age-associated DNA methylation trajectories between sexes are present on the X-chromosome. Several of these differences occur within genes which have implicated in multiple cancers, schizophrenia and systemic lupus erythematosus.
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