ArticleClinical epigenetics2017
Obesity accelerates epigenetic aging in middle-aged but not in elderly individuals.
Article in Clinical epigenetics, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 105 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
105 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 183 citations in OpenAlex.
- BMI is positively associated with accelerated epigenetic aging in twin pairs discordant for body mass index.Journal of internal medicine · 2022Pooled it
- A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Environmental, Lifestyle, and Health Factors Associated With DNA Methylation Age.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2020Pooled it
- Traumatic stress and accelerated DNA methylation age: A meta-analysis.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2018Pooled it
- Effects of Maternal Vitamin D3 Supplementation on Offspring Epigenetic Clock of Gestational Age at Birth: A Post-hoc Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial.Epigenetics · 2020Trial
- Effects of Vitamin D3 Supplementation on Epigenetic Aging in Overweight and Obese African Americans With Suboptimal Vitamin D Status: A Randomized Clinical Trial.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2019Trial
- Associations of breast DNA methylation-based measures of biological ageing with obesity-related breast cancer risk markers.Epigenetics · 2026Article
- Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and Change in the AI-ECG-Derived Biological-Age Gap: A Longitudinal Cohort Study.Obesity surgery · 2026Article
- Senescent obesity signature in breast cancer: a paradigm of reverse cardio-oncology.European heart journal · 2026Review
- Obesity accelerates aging: Mechanisms and therapeutic implications.Genes & diseases · 2026Review
- The impact of cumulative obesity and genetic susceptibility on biological aging in Chinese older adults.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Article
- Examining Epigenetic Age in Women with Different Obesity Conditions Using DNA Methylation at theMethods and protocols · 2026Article
- Association between cardiovascular health and epigenetic aging: a twin study.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Article
- Review of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy as an Adjunctive Intervention for Metabolic Disorders.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Long-term BMI trajectories and epigenetic age acceleration: the role of genetic risk for obesity.BMC medicine · 2025Article
- Cumulative Epigenetic Aging From Birth to Young Adulthood and Prospective Associations With Cardiometabolic Health in the CHAMACOS Study.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2025Article
- Weight of time: exploring the link between obesity and aging.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2025Review
- Vitamin E intake mediates the associations of triglyceride-glucose index and its related parameters with phenotypic age acceleration in middle-aged and elderly population.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Epigenetic clocks as mediators of health behaviors and mortality in middle-aged and older adults.The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2025Article
- Dynamic cross-lagged effects between healthy lifestyles and multimorbidity among middle-aged and older adults in China.BMC public health · 2025Article
45 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHuman aging is associated with profound changes in one of the major epigenetic mechanisms, DNA methylation. Some of these changes occur in a clock-like fashion, i.e., correlating with the calendar age of an individual, thus providing a new aging biomarker. Some reports have identified factors associated with the acceleration of the epigenetic age. However, it is also important to analyze the temporal changes in the epigenetic age, i.e., the duration of the observed acceleration, and the effects of the possible therapeutic and lifestyle modifications.
methodsTo address this issue, we determined the epigenetic age for a cohort of 183 healthy individuals using blood samples derived from two time points that were 25 years apart (between 15-24 and 40-49 years of age). Additionally, we also determined the epigenetic ages of 119 individuals in a cohort consisting of 90-year-old participants (nonagenarians). These were determined by using the Horvath algorithm based on the methylation level of 353 CpG sites. The data are indicated as the deviation of the epigenetic age from the calendar age (calendar age minus epigenetic age = delta age, ΔAGE). As obesity is often associated with accelerating aging and degenerative phenotypes, the correlation of the body mass index (BMI) with the ΔAGE was analyzed in the following three age groups: young adults, middle-aged, and nonagenarian.
resultsThe data showed that BMI is associated with decreased ΔAGE, i.e., increased epigenetic age, in middle-aged individuals. This effect is also seen during the 25-year period from early adulthood to middle age, in which an increase in the BMI is significantly associated with a decrease in the ΔAGE. We also analyzed the association between BMI and epigenetic age in young and elderly individuals, but these associations were not significant.
conclusionTaken together, the main finding on this report suggests that association between increased BMI and accelerated epigenetic aging in the blood cells of middle-aged individuals can be observed, and this effect is also detectable if the BMI has increased in adulthood. The fact that the association between BMI and epigenetic age can only be observed in the middle-aged group does not exclude the possibility that this association could be present throughout the human lifespan; it might just be masked by confounding factors in young adults and nonagenarian individuals.
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