Swedish and Scottish scientists have developed an epigenetic clock that can accurately measure the extent of biological aging compared to chronological aging.
- Researchers have found that kidney failure accelerates biological aging.
- An epigenetic clock is an examination of DNA to measure biological aging in relation to chronological age.
- In this study, scientists developed the Glasgow-Karolinska clock, which “precisely measures the extent of biological aging, as opposed to chronological aging.”
Researchers from the University of Glasgow (Scotland) and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm (Sweden) have succeeded in developing a test to accurately measure biological aging.
Chronic kidney failure accelerates biological aging
For the purposes of this study, researchers examined 400 patients affected by chronic kidney failure in Sweden and a group of around 100 matched controls. The objective was to better understand the impact of the disease on aging, including during dialysis treatment and after kidney transplantation. This work was published in the Journal of Internal Medicine.
During the research, the Swedish-Scottish team carried out a series of tests on patients (measurement of blood biomarkers, skin autofluorescence, etc.). An assessment of epigenetic clocks, a type of examination ofDNA testing to measure biological aging in relation to chronological age has also been carried out.
The scientists notably used biological clocks to evaluate the evolution of the biological age of 47 patients one year after a kidney transplant or one year after the start of their dialysis treatment. For comparison, theThe aging of healthy tissues from 48 controls was also examined.
Those responsible for the study then observed that the biological clock of patients suffering from a chronic disease ticks more quickly than that of the control group even when they benefit from dialysis treatment. However, they found that the Patients’ biological clocks slow down following kidney transplantation.
The development of an ultra-precise epigenetic clock
However, the researchers noted that none of the current clocks could be considered accurate in a clinical context. In particular, they ensured that they were all inaccurate to varying degrees when tested on healthy tissues over time.
Faced with this observation, the scientific team developed a new epigenetic clock: the Glasgow-Karolinska clock, which operates on healthy and unhealthy tissues. “This is the first time in a clinical context that we can accurately verify the extent of biological aging, as opposed to chronological aging, in patients with chronic kidney disease. Our results, obtained using the new Glasgow-Karolinska clock, show that not only do these patients age faster than people in the general population, but their accelerated aging only slows down when they have undergone a transplant. Dialysis treatment does not appear to have any impact on this process”noted Professor Paul Shiels, lead author of the study and specialist in Geroscience.
