Brain DNA Methylation Age, Lifestyle Factors and Dementia in the Swedish Twin Registry.

ABSTRACT: Advanced age is the most important risk factor for dementia. Measures of biological ageing such as DNA methylation age (DNAmAge) can give more information about the accumulation of age-related molecular damage in different organs than chronological age alone. Using post-mortem brain tissue from Swedish Twin Registry participants, we explored the relationship between lifestyle factors, dementia and DNAmAge measures from prefrontal cortex and cerebellum (n = 27 individuals) and paired blood samples (n = 20 individuals). We observed that smoking was associated with a higher DNAmAge deviation (PCBrainAge + 6.4 years in prefrontal cortex, CI [2.5, 10.3], p = 0.004). Conversely, a longer time spent in formal education was associated with a lower DNAmAge deviation (DNAmClock_Cortical - 

SUBMITTER: McMurran CE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12341783 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature