Cell Tree Rings: the structure of somatic evolution as a human aging timer.

ABSTRACT: Biological age is typically estimated using biomarkers whose states have been observed to correlate with chronological age. A persistent limitation of such aging clocks is that it is difficult to establish how the biomarker states are related to the mechanisms of aging. Somatic mutations could potentially form the basis for a more fundamental aging clock since the mutations are both markers and drivers of aging and have a natural timescale. Cell lineage trees inferred from these mutations reflect the somatic evolutionary process, and thus, it has been conjectured, the aging status of the body. Such a timer has been impractical thus far, however, because detection of somatic variants in single cells presents a significant technological challenge. Here, we show that somatic mutations detecte

SUBMITTER: Csordas A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11009167 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature