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. 2024 Jun 14;229(6):1803-1811.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiae016.

Epigenetic Aging and Musculoskeletal Outcomes in a Cohort of Women Living With HIV

Stephanie Shiau  1 , Francesca Zumpano  1 , Ziyi Wang  1 , Jayesh Shah  2 , Phyllis C Tien  3   4 , Ryan D Ross  5 , Anjali Sharma  6 , Michael T Yin  2
Affiliations

Epigenetic Aging and Musculoskeletal Outcomes in a Cohort of Women Living With HIV

Stephanie Shiau et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: The relationship between accelerated epigenetic aging and musculoskeletal outcomes in women with HIV (WWH) has not been studied.

Methods: We measured DNA methylation age using the Infinium MethylationEPIC BeadChip in a cohort from the Women's Interagency HIV Study (n = 190) with measures of bone mineral density (BMD) and physical function. We estimated 6 biomarkers of epigenetic aging-epigenetic age acceleration (EAA), extrinsic EAA, intrinsic EAA, GrimAge, PhenoAge, and DNA methylation-estimated telomere length-and evaluated associations of epigenetic aging measures with BMD and physical function. We also performed epigenome-wide association studies to examine associations of DNA methylation signatures with BMD and physical function.

Results: This study included 118 WWH (mean age, 49.7 years; 69% Black) and 72 without HIV (mean age, 48.9 years; 69% Black). WWH had higher EAA (mean ± SD, 1.44 ± 5.36 vs -1.88 ± 5.07; P < .001) and lower DNA methylation-estimated telomere length (7.13 ± 0.31 vs 7.34 ± 0.23, P < .001) than women without HIV. There were no significant associations between accelerated epigenetic aging and BMD. Rather, measures of accelerated epigenetic aging were associated with lower physical function.

Conclusions: Accelerated epigenetic aging was observed in WWH as compared with women without HIV and was associated with lower physical function in both groups.

Keywords: HIV; bone mineral density; epigenetic aging; osteoporosis; physical function.

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Conflict of interest statement

Potential conflicts of interest. All authors: No reported conflicts.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A–F, EAA, EEAA, IEAA, GrimAge, PhenoAge, and DNAmTL in women with HIV (HIV+, n = 118) and women without HIV (HIV–, n = 72). Comparisons between groups were performed with t tests. ***P < .05. Line, median; box, IQR; error bars, 1.5 × IQR; circles, outliers. DNAmTL, DNA methylation–estimated telomere length; EAA, epigenetic age acceleration; EEAA, extrinsic epigenetic age acceleration; IEAA, intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration; NS, not significant.
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