TY - JOUR
T1 - Epigenetic aging and perceived psychological stress in old age
AU - Vetter, Valentin Max
AU - Drewelies, Johanna
AU - Sommerer, Yasmine
AU - Kalies, Christian Humberto
AU - Regitz-Zagrosek, Vera
AU - Bertram, Lars
AU - Gerstorf, Denis
AU - Demuth, Ilja
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant number DE 842/7-1 to ID), the ERC (as part of the “Lifebrain” project to LB), and the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund (as part of the “CIRCUITS” consortium to LB). This article uses data from the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) and the GendAge study which were supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research under grant numbers #01UW0808; #16SV5536K, #16SV5537, #16SV5538, #16SV5837, #01GL1716A and #01GL1716B. We thank all probands of the BASE-II/GendAge study for their participation in this research.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Adverse effects of psychological stress on physical and mental health, especially in older age, are well documented. How perceived stress relates to the epigenetic clock measure, DNA methylation age acceleration (DNAmAA), is less well understood and existing studies reported inconsistent results. DNAmAA was estimated from five epigenetic clocks (7-CpG, Horvath’s, Hannum’s, PhenoAge and GrimAge DNAmAA). Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used as marker of psychological stress. We analyzed data from 1,100 Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) participants assessed as part of the GendAge study (mean age = 75.6 years, SD = 3.8 years, 52.1% women). In a first step, we replicated well-established associations of perceived stress with morbidity, frailty, and symptoms of depression in the BASE-II cohort studied here. In a second step, we did not find any statistically significant association of perceived stress with any of the five epigenetic clocks in multiple linear regression analyses that adjusted for covariates. Although the body of literature suggests an association between higher DNAmAA and stress or trauma during early childhood, the current study found no evidence for an association of perception of stress with DNAmAA in older people. We discuss possible reasons for the lack of associations and highlight directions for future research.
AB - Adverse effects of psychological stress on physical and mental health, especially in older age, are well documented. How perceived stress relates to the epigenetic clock measure, DNA methylation age acceleration (DNAmAA), is less well understood and existing studies reported inconsistent results. DNAmAA was estimated from five epigenetic clocks (7-CpG, Horvath’s, Hannum’s, PhenoAge and GrimAge DNAmAA). Cohen’s Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used as marker of psychological stress. We analyzed data from 1,100 Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II) participants assessed as part of the GendAge study (mean age = 75.6 years, SD = 3.8 years, 52.1% women). In a first step, we replicated well-established associations of perceived stress with morbidity, frailty, and symptoms of depression in the BASE-II cohort studied here. In a second step, we did not find any statistically significant association of perceived stress with any of the five epigenetic clocks in multiple linear regression analyses that adjusted for covariates. Although the body of literature suggests an association between higher DNAmAA and stress or trauma during early childhood, the current study found no evidence for an association of perception of stress with DNAmAA in older people. We discuss possible reasons for the lack of associations and highlight directions for future research.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85138631948&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41398-022-02181-9
DO - 10.1038/s41398-022-02181-9
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 36163242
AN - SCOPUS:85138631948
SN - 2158-3188
VL - 12
JO - Translational Psychiatry
JF - Translational Psychiatry
IS - 1
M1 - 410
ER -
