Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 16 pp 16539—16554
Accelerated epigenetic aging as a risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and decreased lung function in two prospective cohort studies
- 1 Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, US Environmental Protection Agency, Chapel Hill, NC 27709, USA
- 2 Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- 3 MD-PhD Program, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
- 4 Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- 5 Institute and Outpatient Clinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine, Inner Clinic, University Hospital of Munich, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
- 6 Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany
- 7 Comprehensive Pneumology Center Munich (CPC-M), Member of the German Center for Lung Research (DZL), Munich, Neuherberg, Germany
- 8 Research Unit Molecular Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Neuherberg, Germany
- 9 Department of Infection and Immunity, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
- 10 Odense Research Center for Anaphylaxis, Department of Dermatology and Allergy Center, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
- 11 Department of Genetic Dermatology, University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany
- 12 Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY 10029, USA
- 13 Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA
- 14 Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah, School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, USA
- 15 Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study, Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA 02118, USA
- 16 Department of Preventive Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USA
- 17 Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, US Environmental Protection Agency, Chapel Hill, NC 27709, USA
Received: April 15, 2020 Accepted: July 14, 2020 Published: August 3, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103784How to Cite
Copyright © 2020 Breen et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a frequent diagnosis in older individuals and contributor to global morbidity and mortality. Given the link between lung disease and aging, we need to understand how molecular indicators of aging relate to lung function and disease. Using data from the population-based KORA (Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg) surveys, we associated baseline epigenetic (DNA methylation) age acceleration with incident COPD and lung function. Models were adjusted for age, sex, smoking, height, weight, and baseline lung disease as appropriate. Associations were replicated in the Normative Aging Study. Of 770 KORA participants, 131 developed incident COPD over 7 years. Baseline accelerated epigenetic aging was significantly associated with incident COPD. The change in age acceleration (follow-up – baseline) was more strongly associated with COPD than baseline aging alone. The association between the change in age acceleration between baseline and follow-up and incident COPD replicated in the Normative Aging Study. Associations with spirometric lung function parameters were weaker than those with COPD, but a meta-analysis of both cohorts provide suggestive evidence of associations. Accelerated epigenetic aging, both baseline measures and changes over time, may be a risk factor for COPD and reduced lung function.