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 (r_s = -0.48, P

SUBMITTER: Javed R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5183755 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature