. 2023 Sep 2;15(1):142.

doi: 10.1186/s13148-023-01552-3.

Evaluation of pediatric epigenetic clocks across multiple tissues

Fang Fang¹, Linran Zhou², Wei Perng³, Carmen J Marsit⁴, Anna K Knight⁵, Andres Cardenas⁶, Max T Aung⁷, Marie-France Hivert^{8

9}, Izzuddin M Aris⁸, Jaclyn M Goodrich¹⁰, Alicia K Smith^{5

11}, Abigail Gaylord¹², Rebecca C Fry¹³, Emily Oken⁸, George O'Connor^{14

15}, Douglas M Ruden¹⁶, Leonardo Trasande^{12

17}, Julie B Herbstman¹⁸, Carlos A Camargo Jr¹⁹, Nicole R Bush²⁰, Anne L Dunlop⁵, Dana M Dabelea³, Margaret R Karagas²¹, Carrie V Breton⁷, Carole Ober²², Todd M Everson⁴, Grier P Page², Christine Ladd-Acosta²³; program collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes

Collaborators, Affiliations

Collaborators

program collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes:
P B Smith, L K Newby, L P Jacobson, D J Catellier, R Gershon, D Cella, F R Laham, J M Mansbach, S Wu, J M Spergel, J C Celedón, H T Puls, S J Teach, S C Porter, I Y Waynik, S S Iyer, M E Samuels-Kalow, A D Thompson, M D Stevenson, C S Bauer, N R Inhofe, M Boos, C G Macias, J Gern, D Jackson, L Bacharier, M Kattan, R Wood, K Rivera-Spoljaric, L Bacharier, T Bastain, S Farzan, R Habre, C Karr, F Tylavsky, A Mason, Q Zhao, S Sathyanarayana, N Bush, K Z LeWinn, B Lester, B Carter, S Pastyrnak, C Neal, L Smith, J Helderman, C McEvoy, R Tepper, K Lyall, H Volk, R Schmidt, L Croen, M O'Shea, R Vaidya, R Obeid, C Rollins, K Bear, S Pastyrnak, M Lenski, R Singh, M Msall, J Frazier, S Gogcu, A Montgomery, K Kuban, L Douglass, H Jara, R Joseph, J M Kerver, F Perera

Affiliations

¹ GenOmics and Translational Research Center, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, 3040 East Cornwallis Road, Durham, NC, 27709-2194, USA. ffang@rti.org.
² GenOmics and Translational Research Center, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, 3040 East Cornwallis Road, Durham, NC, 27709-2194, USA.
³ Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, Lifecourse Epidemiology of Adiposity and Diabetes (LEAD) Center, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA.
⁴ Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
⁵ Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
⁶ Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁷ Division of Environmental Health, Department of Population and Populace Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁸ Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
⁹ Diabetes Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
¹² Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
¹³ Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹⁴ Pulmonary Center, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁵ The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Population Health, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁸ Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
²⁰ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
²¹ Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.
²² Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
²³ Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.

PMID: 37660147
PMCID: PMC10475199
DOI: 10.1186/s13148-023-01552-3

Evaluation of pediatric epigenetic clocks across multiple tissues

Fang Fang et al. Clin Epigenetics. 2023.

. 2023 Sep 2;15(1):142.

doi: 10.1186/s13148-023-01552-3.

Authors

Collaborators

program collaborators for Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes:
P B Smith, L K Newby, L P Jacobson, D J Catellier, R Gershon, D Cella, F R Laham, J M Mansbach, S Wu, J M Spergel, J C Celedón, H T Puls, S J Teach, S C Porter, I Y Waynik, S S Iyer, M E Samuels-Kalow, A D Thompson, M D Stevenson, C S Bauer, N R Inhofe, M Boos, C G Macias, J Gern, D Jackson, L Bacharier, M Kattan, R Wood, K Rivera-Spoljaric, L Bacharier, T Bastain, S Farzan, R Habre, C Karr, F Tylavsky, A Mason, Q Zhao, S Sathyanarayana, N Bush, K Z LeWinn, B Lester, B Carter, S Pastyrnak, C Neal, L Smith, J Helderman, C McEvoy, R Tepper, K Lyall, H Volk, R Schmidt, L Croen, M O'Shea, R Vaidya, R Obeid, C Rollins, K Bear, S Pastyrnak, M Lenski, R Singh, M Msall, J Frazier, S Gogcu, A Montgomery, K Kuban, L Douglass, H Jara, R Joseph, J M Kerver, F Perera

Affiliations

¹ GenOmics and Translational Research Center, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, 3040 East Cornwallis Road, Durham, NC, 27709-2194, USA. ffang@rti.org.
² GenOmics and Translational Research Center, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, 3040 East Cornwallis Road, Durham, NC, 27709-2194, USA.
³ Department of Epidemiology, Colorado School of Public Health, Lifecourse Epidemiology of Adiposity and Diabetes (LEAD) Center, University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA.
⁴ Gangarosa Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
⁵ Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA.
⁶ Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
⁷ Division of Environmental Health, Department of Population and Populace Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁸ Department of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
⁹ Diabetes Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, USA.
¹² Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
¹³ Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
¹⁴ Pulmonary Center, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
¹⁵ The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, USA.
¹⁶ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA.
¹⁷ Department of Population Health, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁸ Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
¹⁹ Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
²⁰ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Pediatrics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
²¹ Department of Epidemiology, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA.
²² Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
²³ Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.

PMID: 37660147
PMCID: PMC10475199
DOI: 10.1186/s13148-023-01552-3

Abstract

Background: Epigenetic clocks are promising tools for assessing biological age. We assessed the accuracy of pediatric epigenetic clocks in gestational and chronological age determination.

Results: Our study used data from seven tissue types on three DNA methylation profiling microarrays and found that the Knight and Bohlin clocks performed similarly for blood cells, while the Lee clock was superior for placental samples. The pediatric-buccal-epigenetic clock performed the best for pediatric buccal samples, while the Horvath clock is recommended for children's blood cell samples. The NeoAge clock stands out for its unique ability to predict post-menstrual age with high correlation with the observed age in infant buccal cell samples.

Conclusions: Our findings provide valuable guidance for future research and development of epigenetic clocks in pediatric samples, enabling more accurate assessments of biological age.

Keywords: DNA methylation; Early childhood chronological age; Epigenetic clock; Gestational age.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

**Fig. 1**
Flowchart describing the participant and cohort selection process, adhering to the inclusion criteria for the analysis

**Fig. 2**
A summary of the epigenetic clocks used and compared in this study and our recommendation for specific tissue types. CA, chronological age; GA, gestational age. All the correlations mentioned are Spearman correlation

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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Evaluation of pediatric epigenetic clocks across multiple tissues

Collaborators

Affiliations

Evaluation of pediatric epigenetic clocks across multiple tissues

Authors

Collaborators

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources