ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2014
Glycans are a novel biomarker of chronological and biological ages.
Article in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 230 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
230 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 405 citations in OpenAlex.
- Glycosylation of Immunoglobulin G Associates With Clinical Features of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.Gastroenterology · 2018Pooled it
- High-throughput characterization of the functional impact of IgG Fc glycan aberrancy in juvenile idiopathic arthritis.Glycobiology · 2017Trial
- Orthodox vs. Paradox: Supporting the Central Dogma With Sugar Code.Proteomics · 2026Review
- IgG N-Glycosylation and Incident Neuropathy and Nephropathy in People With Type 2 Diabetes: A Pooled Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies.Diabetes care · 2026Article
- B cell mechanisms underlie IgG glycan alterations in obesity.Glycobiology · 2026Article
- Association of IgG N-Glycans With Adverse Outcomes in CKD.Kidney international reports · 2026Article
- Inhibiting glycan degradation prevents HIV-induced inflammaging and cognitive impairment.Med (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- Comparative organ-wide analysis of age-related N-glycan alterations in mice reveals a link to lysosomal glycosidases.npj aging · 2026Article
- Characterization of IgG N-glycan patterns in COVID-19, sepsis and healthy subjects.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Functional, molecular, and digital measurements of biological age.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Review
- Physical activity and IgG N-glycosylation in medical students: a cross-sectional study.Croatian medical journal · 2026Article
- From the lab to lifestyle: epigenetic clocks in personalized aging and health.Biogerontology · 2026Review
- The BHARAT study: a multi-modal, multi-omics investigation of aging signatures in the Indian population.Aging · 2026Observational
- Immunoglobulin G and plasma glycome in early rheumatoid arthritis differ from matched controls and link less fat-free mass to an accelerated aging phenotype: an exploratory study.Arthritis research & therapy · 2026Article
- Histone modification clocks for robust cross-species biological age prediction and elucidating senescence regulation.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- IgG Gal-ratio, a promising serum biomarker for detecting ovarian cancer in as early as stage I disease.Journal of ovarian research · 2026Article
- Galactose tolerance in adults with classical galactosaemia. Considering the gaps.Molecular genetics and metabolism reports · 2026Article
- OMICmAge quantifies biological age by integrating multi-omics with electronic medical records.Nature aging · 2026Article
- Advancing Vaccination Strategies for Older Adults: Insights of the Adult Immunization Board Meeting.Drugs & aging · 2026Review
- Multi-Omics Analysis of Morbid Obesity Using a Patented Unsupervised Machine Learning Platform: Genomic, Biochemical, and Glycan Insights.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
170 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
27 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Fine structural details of glycans attached to the conserved N-glycosylation site significantly not only affect function of individual immunoglobulin G (IgG) molecules but also mediate inflammation at the systemic level. By analyzing IgG glycosylation in 5,117 individuals from four European populations, we have revealed very complex patterns of changes in IgG glycosylation with age. Several IgG glycans (including FA2B, FA2G2, and FA2BG2) changed considerably with age and the combination of these three glycans can explain up to 58% of variance in chronological age, significantly more than other markers of biological age like telomere lengths. The remaining variance in these glycans strongly correlated with physiological parameters associated with biological age. Thus, IgG glycosylation appears to be closely linked with both chronological and biological ages. Considering the important role of IgG glycans in inflammation, and because the observed changes with age promote inflammation, changes in IgG glycosylation also seem to represent a factor contributing to aging. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Glycosylation is the key posttranslational mechanism that regulates function of immunoglobulins, with multiple systemic repercussions to the immune system. Our study of IgG glycosylation in 5,117 individuals from four European populations has revealed very extensive and complex changes in IgG glycosylation with age. The combined index composed of only three glycans explained up to 58% of variance in age, considerably more than other biomarkers of age like telomere lengths. The remaining variance in these glycans strongly correlated with physiological parameters associated with biological age; thus, IgG glycosylation appears to be closely linked with both chronological and biological ages. The ability to measure human biological aging using molecular profiling has practical applications for diverse fields such as disease prevention and treatment, or forensics.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.