title: Gender-specific DNA methylome analysis of a Han Chinese longevity population.
abstract: Human longevity is always a biological hotspot and so much effort has been devoted to identifying genes and genetic variations associated with longer lives. Most of the demographic studies have highlighted that females have a longer life span than males. The reasons for this are not entirely clear. In this study, we carried out a pool-based, epigenome-wide investigation of DNA methylation profiles in male and female nonagenarians/centenarians using the Illumina 450 K Methylation Beadchip assays. Although no significant difference was detected for the average methylation levels of examined CpGs (or probes) between male and female samples, a significant number of differentially methylated probes (DMPs) were identified, which appeared to be enriched in certain chromosome regions and certain parts of genes. Further analysis of DMP-containing genes (named DMGs) revealed that almost all of them are solely hypermethylated or hypomethylated. Functional enrichment analysis of these DMGs indicated that DNA hypermethylation and hypomethylation may regulate genes involved in different biological processes, such as hormone regulation, neuron projection, and disease-related pathways. This is the first effort to explore the gender-based methylome difference in nonagenarians/centenarians, which may provide new insights into the complex mechanism of longevity gender gap of human beings.
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Geriatrics, Beijing Hospital and Beijing Institute of Geriatrics, Ministry of Health, Beijing 100730, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Nutrition and Metabolism, Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China ; Key Laboratory of Systems Biology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Hongwu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Du
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Jiangbin Hospital, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, China.
authors.forename: Caiyou
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Yongfu Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Yongfu, Guangxi 541800, China.
authors.forename: Zezhi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Jiangbin Hospital, Nanning, Guangxi 530021, China.
authors.forename: Zeping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Guangxi Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Nanning, Guangxi 530003, China.
authors.forename: Chenguang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Geriatrics, Beijing Hospital and Beijing Institute of Geriatrics, Ministry of Health, Beijing 100730, China.
authors.forename: Xiaohong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Nutrition and Metabolism, Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1969-5642
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory of Geriatrics, Beijing Hospital and Beijing Institute of Geriatrics, Ministry of Health, Beijing 100730, China.
authors.forename: Ze
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics*; D002681:China; D004247:DNA / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000235:genetics*; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D057890:Epigenomics; D005260:Female; D015894:Genome, Human / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male
chemical_list: D004247:DNA