SynthesisThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2019
Tracking the Epigenetic Clock Across the Human Life Course: A Meta-analysis of Longitudinal Cohort Data.
Synthesis in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers.
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Who cites it
66 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effects of daily multivitamin-multimineral and cocoa extract supplementation on epigenetic aging clocks in the COSMOS randomized clinical trial.Nature medicine · 2026Trial
- Lifestyle weight-loss intervention may attenuate methylation aging: the CENTRAL MRI randomized controlled trial.Clinical epigenetics · 2021Trial
- 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
- An epigenetic clock for chronological age estimation in East Asian populations.NAR genomics and bioinformatics · 2026Article
- Longitudinal changes in epigenetic measures over 2 years: methodological implications.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Supplements and Drugs Are Associated With Biological Age in a Cohort of Exceptionally Healthy Individuals.Aging cell · 2026Article
- Phenotypic age acceleration as a novel predictor of benign prostatic hyperplasia: a prospective cohort study.GeroScience · 2026Article
- Association between pace of aging estimated from blood DNA methylation and all-cause mortality: the HUNT study.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Article
- Ageing was never a singular problem in biology: implications for mechanisms, measurements and interventions.Biogerontology · 2026Review
- Climate Change, Epigenetics, Microbiota, and Health.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Review
- Longitudinal changes in epigenetic clocks predict survival in the InCHIANTI cohort.Nature aging · 2026Article
- Article
- Dental Ageing Offers New Insights Into the First Epigenetic Clock for Common Dolphins (Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Dental aging offers new insights to the first epigenetic clock for common dolphins (bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- The social context of educational effort - implications for psychological and physiological health in adolescence.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- The Morphological, Behavioral, and Transcriptomic Life Cycle of Anthrobots.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Associations between epigenetic age and brain age in young people.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- DNA Methylation, Aging, and Cancer.Epigenomes · 2025Review
- Unified high-resolution immune cell fraction estimation in blood tissue from birth to old age.Genome medicine · 2025Article
6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Background: Epigenetic clocks based on DNA methylation yield high correlations with chronological age in cross-sectional data. Due to a paucity of longitudinal data, it is not known how Δage (epigenetic age - chronological age) changes over time or if it remains constant from childhood to old age. Here, we investigate this using longitudinal DNA methylation data from five datasets, covering most of the human life course. Methods: Two measures of the epigenetic clock (Hannum and Horvath) are used to calculate Δage in the following cohorts: Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) offspring (n = 986, total age-range 7-19 years, 2 waves), ALSPAC mothers (n = 982, 16-60 years, 2 waves), InCHIANTI (n = 460, 21-100 years, 2 waves), SATSA (n = 373, 48-99 years, 5 waves), Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (n = 1,054, 70-76 years, 3 waves), and Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 (n = 476, 79-90 years, 3 waves). Linear mixed models were used to track longitudinal change in Δage within each cohort. Results: For both epigenetic age measures, Δage showed a declining trend in almost all of the cohorts. The correlation between Δage across waves ranged from 0.22 to 0.82 for Horvath and 0.25 to 0.71 for Hannum, with stronger associations in samples collected closer in time. Conclusions: Epigenetic age increases at a slower rate than chronological age across the life course, especially in the oldest population. Some of the effect is likely driven by survival bias, where healthy individuals are those maintained within a longitudinal study, although other factors like the age distribution of the underlying training population may also have influenced this trend.
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