Project description:Altered DNA methylation patterns represent an attractive mechanism for the phenotypic changes associated with human aging. Several studies have described age-related methylation changes to various extents, but their functional significance has remained largely unclear. We have now used an integrated methylome and transcriptome sequencing approach to characterize age-related methylation changes in the human epidermis and to analyze their impact on gene expression. Our results show limited and localized methylation differences between young and old methylomes at single-base resolution. Similarly, the comparison of transcriptomes from young and old samples revealed a highly defined set of differentially expressed genes with functional annotations in skin homeostasis. Further data analysis showed a robust correlation between age-related promoter hypermethylation and gene silencing, particularly at promoters that were pre-marked with stem cell-specific chromatin features. In addition, we also observed age-related methylation changes at transcription factor binding sites, with a significant enrichment of stem cell regulatory networks. Our results provide a high-resolution analysis of age-related methylation changes and suggest that they result in highly defined alterations in the transcriptional programme of the human epidermis. Interestingly, several of our findings can be interpreted to reflect epigenetic changes in aging stem cells, thus supporting a critical role of stem cells in human aging. Whole genome methylation analysis of H. sapiens. Two samples were analyzed, one sample containing DNA from young, one sample containing DNA from old human skin.
Project description:Altered DNA methylation patterns represent an attractive mechanism for the phenotypic changes associated with human aging. Several studies have described age-related methylation changes to various extents, but their functional significance has remained largely unclear. We have now used an integrated methylome and transcriptome sequencing approach to characterize age-related methylation changes in the human epidermis and to analyze their impact on gene expression. Our results show limited and localized methylation differences between young and old methylomes at single-base resolution. Similarly, the comparison of transcriptomes from young and old samples revealed a highly defined set of differentially expressed genes with functional annotations in skin homeostasis. Further data analysis showed a robust correlation between age-related promoter hypermethylation and gene silencing, particularly at promoters that were pre-marked with stem cell-specific chromatin features. In addition, we also observed age-related methylation changes at transcription factor binding sites, with a significant enrichment of stem cell regulatory networks. Our results provide a high-resolution analysis of age-related methylation changes and suggest that they result in highly defined alterations in the transcriptional programme of the human epidermis. Interestingly, several of our findings can be interpreted to reflect epigenetic changes in aging stem cells, thus supporting a critical role of stem cells in human aging. Whole transcriptome analysis of H. sapiens. Two samples were analyzed, one sample containing RNA from young, one sample containing RNA from old human skin.
Project description:Altered DNA methylation patterns represent an attractive mechanism for the phenotypic changes associated with human aging. Several studies have described age-related methylation changes to various extents, but their functional significance has remained largely unclear. We have now used an integrated methylome and transcriptome sequencing approach to characterize age-related methylation changes in the human epidermis and to analyze their impact on gene expression. Our results show limited and localized methylation differences between young and old methylomes at single-base resolution. Similarly, the comparison of transcriptomes from young and old samples revealed a highly defined set of differentially expressed genes with functional annotations in skin homeostasis. Further data analysis showed a robust correlation between age-related promoter hypermethylation and gene silencing, particularly at promoters that were pre-marked with stem cell-specific chromatin features. In addition, we also observed age-related methylation changes at transcription factor binding sites, with a significant enrichment of stem cell regulatory networks. Our results provide a high-resolution analysis of age-related methylation changes and suggest that they result in highly defined alterations in the transcriptional programme of the human epidermis. Interestingly, several of our findings can be interpreted to reflect epigenetic changes in aging stem cells, thus supporting a critical role of stem cells in human aging.
Project description:Altered DNA methylation patterns represent an attractive mechanism for the phenotypic changes associated with human aging. Several studies have described age-related methylation changes to various extents, but their functional significance has remained largely unclear. We have now used an integrated methylome and transcriptome sequencing approach to characterize age-related methylation changes in the human epidermis and to analyze their impact on gene expression. Our results show limited and localized methylation differences between young and old methylomes at single-base resolution. Similarly, the comparison of transcriptomes from young and old samples revealed a highly defined set of differentially expressed genes with functional annotations in skin homeostasis. Further data analysis showed a robust correlation between age-related promoter hypermethylation and gene silencing, particularly at promoters that were pre-marked with stem cell-specific chromatin features. In addition, we also observed age-related methylation changes at transcription factor binding sites, with a significant enrichment of stem cell regulatory networks. Our results provide a high-resolution analysis of age-related methylation changes and suggest that they result in highly defined alterations in the transcriptional programme of the human epidermis. Interestingly, several of our findings can be interpreted to reflect epigenetic changes in aging stem cells, thus supporting a critical role of stem cells in human aging.
2013-12-20 | GSE46450 | GEO
Project description:Association Between Early Life DNA Methylation Patterns with Age-Related Transcriptional Changes
Project description:Epigenetic changes represent an attractive mechanism for understanding the phenotypic changes associated with human aging. Age-related changes in DNA methylation at the genome scale have been termed epigenetic drift, but the defining features of this phenomenon remain to be established. Human epidermis represents an excellent model for understanding age-related epigenetic changes because of its substantial cell-type homogeneity and its well-known age-related phenotype. We have now generated and analyzed the currently largest set of human epidermis methylomes (N=108) using array-based profiling of 450,000 methylation marks in various age groups. Data analysis confirmed that age-related methylation differences are locally restricted and characterized by relatively small effect sizes. Nevertheless, methylation data could be used to predict the chronological age of sample donors with high accuracy. We also identified discontinuous methylation changes as a novel feature of the aging methylome. Finally, our analysis uncovers an age-related erosion of DNA methylation patterns that is characterized by a reduced dynamic range and increased heterogeneity of global methylation patterns. These changes in methylation variability were accompanied by a reduced connectivity of transcriptional networks. Our findings thus define the loss of epigenetic regulatory fidelity as a key feature of the aging epigenome. This data set contains data from transcription profiling by array of human epidermis samples. The results of methylation profiling are provided in the ArrayExpress experiment E-MTAB-4385.
Project description:Epigenetic changes represent an attractive mechanism for understanding the phenotypic changes associated with human aging. Age-related changes in DNA methylation at the genome scale have been termed epigenetic drift, but the defining features of this phenomenon remain to be established. Human epidermis represents an excellent model for understanding age-related epigenetic changes because of its substantial cell-type homogeneity and its well-known age-related phenotype. We have now generated and analyzed the currently largest set of human epidermis methylomes (N=108) using array-based profiling of 450,000 methylation marks in various age groups. Data analysis confirmed that age-related methylation differences are locally restricted and characterized by relatively small effect sizes. Nevertheless, methylation data could be used to predict the chronological age of sample donors with high accuracy. We also identified discontinuous methylation changes as a novel feature of the aging methylome. Finally, our analysis uncovers an age-related erosion of DNA methylation patterns that is characterized by a reduced dynamic range and increased heterogeneity of global methylation patterns. These changes in methylation variability were accompanied by a reduced connectivity of transcriptional networks. Our findings thus define the loss of epigenetic regulatory fidelity as a key feature of the aging epigenome. This data set contains data from methylation profiling by array of human epidermis samples. The results of transcription profiling by array are provided in the ArrayExpress experiment E-MTAB-4382.
Project description:The impact of healthy aging on molecular programming of immune cells is poorly understood. Here, we report comprehensive characterization of healthy aging in human classical monocytes, with a focus on epigenomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic alterations, as well as the corresponding proteomic and metabolomic data for plasma, using healthy cohorts of 20 young and 20 older males (~27 and ~64 years old on average). For each individual, we performed eRRBS-based DNA methylation profiling, which allowed us to identify a set of age-associated differentially methylated regions (DMRs) – a novel, cell-type specific signature of aging in DNA methylome. Hypermethylation events were associated with H3K27me3 in the CpG islands near promoters of lowly-expressed genes, while hypomethylated DMRs were enriched in H3K4me1 marked regions and associated with age-related increase of expression of the corresponding genes, providing a link between DNA methylation and age-associated transcriptional changes in primary human cells.