Physiological age is a potential aging process in the body at the biological level [1] and is not equal to actual age, and the epigenetic clock can determine the actual biological age of a subject by testing the body's DNA methylation level. Often to test the validity of epigenetic clocks to reflect the truth and validity of "age," researchers compare it to a number of indicators associated with aging, such as cardiovascular disease that is highly correlated with age growth [2].
A new study published in the journal Mechanisms of Aging and Development recently found that when the body's cardiovascular system issues "health warnings" (such as total cholesterol exceeding the standard), physiological age reflected by the epigenetic clock accelerates [3]. It can be said that under the control of the aging cardiovascular system, the body is moving towards comprehensive aging.
In the study, scholars from the Scharith Medical School in Germany included trial data from more than 1,600 middle-aged and elderly people aged 60-84 years, based on the Berlin Aging Study II[4]. These data included the physiological age, blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood glucose levels of the sample population, and the cardiovascular health of the subjects was comprehensively assessed using two common comprehensive scoring systems, the Framingham Risk Score (FRS) [5] and Simple Life 7 (LS7)[6].
The evaluation results showed that the cardiovascular status of this group of middle-aged and elderly people was really not so good, and many participants showed clinical symptoms of cardiovascular disease (such as coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, etc.), and also included a number of risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol. Moreover, women's cardiovascular system is healthier than men of the same age, and the physiological age can be reduced by 2.7 years.
When the researchers correlated cardiovascular health scores with physiological age, they found that poorer cardiovascular conditions had the effect of accelerating physiological age. Moreover, this phenomenon has nothing to do with gender, both men and women, as long as the cardiovascular system enters aging, the physiological age reflected by the epigenetic clock must be "older" than healthy people.
Moreover, after synthesizing the influencing factors of the two scoring systems, the study found that exercise, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL), and total cholesterol content are the most important factors affecting physiological age. For example, aging slowed by 0.34 years after HDL levels rose to 50-59 mg/dl compared to people with HDL levels of 40-49 mg/dl.
Illustration: Association of physiological age with two cardiovascular health scores
It should be noted, however, that the epigenetic clock used to calculate physiological age in this study is based on only 7 CpG methylation sites, which is much simpler than the Horvath (353 CpG) [7] and Hannum (71 CpG) clocks[ 7] that are more widely recognized by the academic community. Therefore, before further exploring how the cardiovascular system fully regulates the aging process of the body, it may be necessary to use a more accurate physiological age algorithm to re-verify the correlation between the two.
Introduction of researchers
ILja Demuth
Geriatric biology team leader, biologist and human geneticist at the Charité – Universit tsmedizin Berlin, Europe's largest university-affiliated teaching hospital, has published more than 170 papers on the impact of genetic factors on human health and aging.
He is currently participating in the project "Gender-sensitive prevention of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in the elderly in Germany" and is one of the leaders.
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