title: Infant's DNA Methylation Age at Birth and Epigenetic Aging Accelerators.
abstract: Knowing the biological age of the neonates enables us to evaluate and better understand the health and maturity comprehensively. However, because of dearth of biomarkers, it is difficult to quantify the neonatal biological age. Here we sought to quantify and assess the variability in biological age at birth and to better understand how the aging rates before birth are influenced by exposure in intrauterine period by employing a novel epigenetic biomarker of aging (epigenetic clock). We observed that the methylation age at birth was independent of the infant's sex but was significantly influenced by race. Partial correlation analysis showed a significant negative relationship between maternal socioeconomic status and infants' methylation age (rs= -0.48,Ps= 0.005). A significant association with the risk of fast aging was observed for prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke with OR (95% CI) of 3.17 (1.05-9.56). Both estimated cell abundance measures and lymphocyte subpopulations in cord blood showed that tobacco exposed group exhibit an altered T cell compartment, specifically substantial loss of naive T cells. Present study provides the first evidence that common perinatal exposure (such as maternal smoking and lower socioeconomic status) may be important aging accelerators and substantial loss of naive T cells may play a role in the smoking-related fast aging phenomenon.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pediatrics, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Jinsui Road 9, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510623, China.
authors.forename: Ruheena
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7914-7811
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Javed
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiac Surgery, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Jinsui Road 9, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510623, China.
authors.forename: Weidan
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pediatrics, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Jinsui Road 9, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510623, China.
authors.forename: Fangqin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pediatrics, Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Jinsui Road 9, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510623, China.
authors.forename: Huiying
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9987-8002
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D019175:DNA Methylation; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D005260:Female; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution
chemical_list: D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution