INFORMATION:
The study, which is part of the National Institutes of Health Roadmap Epigenomics Project, was supported by NIH contracts N01-HC-from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, by grants UL1-RR-024156 and UL1-RR-025005 from the National Center for Research Resources, and T32AG033534 from the National Institute of Aging. The MESA Epigenomics & Transcriptomics Study was funded by NHLBI grant R01HL101250 to Wake Forest University Health Sciences.
The authors of the study are Lindsay M. Reynolds, Ph.D., Jackson R. Taylor, Ph.D., Jingzhong Ding, M.D., Kurt Lohman, M.Stat., Gregory Burke, M.D., Stephen B. Kritchevsky, Ph.D., Charles E. McCall, M.D., and David Herrington, M.D., of Wake Forest Baptist; Craig Johnson, M.S., and David Siscovick, M.D., of the University of Washington; Wendy Post, M.D., of Johns Hopkins University; Steven Shea, M.D., of Columbia University Medical Center; David R. Jacobs, Jr., Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota; Hendrik Stunnenberg, Ph.D., of the Nijmegen Centre for Molecular Life Sciences, Netherlands; Ina Hoeschele, Ph.D., of Virginia Tech; and Russell P. Tracy, Ph.D., of the University of Vermont.
The role DNA methylation plays in aging cells
2014-11-18
(Press-News.org) WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Nov. 18, 2014 - Although every person's DNA remains the same throughout their lives, scientists know that it functions differently at different ages.
As people age, drastic changes occur in their DNA methylation patterns, which are thought to act as a "second code" on top of the DNA that can lock genes in the on or off position. However, what the consequences of these changes are remains a mystery.
To begin deciphering this process, scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center studied methylation patterns in the blood cells of 1,264 persons ages 55 to 94 who participated in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA).
In a study published in the current issue of Nature Communications, the researchers found age-related differences in DNA methylation in 8 percent of the 450,000 sites tested across the genome. Most of these changes did not seem to affect which cellular genes were turned on or off.
However, the Wake Forest Baptist team did find a small subset of age-linked DNA methylation changes -- 1,794 of the 450,000 sites tested -- that were associated with altered gene expression. Out of this subset, 42 sites were associated with pulse pressure, a measure of vascular health that is known to change with age.
"Our work suggests that most of the age-associated changes in DNA methylation do not have an obvious effect on cellular function, in this case altering gene expression, and some of them may just amount to noise," said Yongmei Liu, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest Baptist and corresponding author of the study.
"The methylation sites that are linked to altered gene expression are good candidates as potential drivers of the negative effects of aging, especially the small subset linked to pulse pressure. Our findings provide new insights into the aging process."
Future studies will try to test the relationship between these methylation sites and specific health outcomes, Liu said. Eventually, the scientists hope to be able to target and reverse specific sites that are involved with age-related diseases.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
The fundamental constants are still constant
2014-11-18
This news release is available in German.
Are the fundamental constants really constant? Recent investigations carried out at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) have shown that one essential fundamental constant - namely the mass ratio of protons to electrons - can have changed only by a maximum of one part in a million over the age of our solar system (i.e. extrapolated over approx. 5 billion years). Previously, scientists deemed the possible changes to be twice as high. To obtain this result, physicists from PTB compared caesium and ytterbium atomic ...
Herbs and spices enhance heart health as well as flavor
2014-11-18
Spices and herbs are rich in antioxidants, which may help improve triglyceride concentrations and other blood lipids, according to Penn State nutritionists.
Triglyceride levels rise after eating a high-fat meal -- which can lead to an increased risk of heart disease. If a high-antioxidant spice blend is incorporated into the meal, triglyceride levels may be reduced by as much as 30 percent when compared to eating an identical meal without the spice blend. The spiced meal included garlic powder, rosemary, oregano, cinnamon, cloves, paprika, turmeric, ginger and black pepper.
Sheila ...
Cell study sheds light on diseases caused by immune system fault
2014-11-18
Scientists have discovered how a gene mutation can lead to diseases that occur when the immune system attacks the body by mistake.
Understanding how these mechanisms work could help scientists to develop new treatments for autoimmune diseases such as Lupus and neurodegenerative conditions including Motor Neurone Disease.
Researchers found that a mutation in the gene - called ADAR1 - causes a defect in an alarm system in our cells that normally protects the body from viruses and other infections. This means that the alarm system is tripped by the cell's own molecules, ...
Ebola surveillance may become quicker and cheaper
2014-11-18
A new method for examining the Ebola virus genome could make surveillance quicker and cheaper for West African nations, and help detect new forms of the virus. The detailed procedure is being shared with the research community along with the study paper, which is freely available in the open access journal Genome Biology.
With over 13,000 cases and nearly 5,000 deaths in eight affected countries, the current Ebola outbreak in West Africa is the largest to date, the first to spread to densely populated urban areas, and represents the first time the virus has been diagnosed ...
Research provides new insight into gluten intolerance
2014-11-18
Celiac disease patients suffer from gluten intolerance and must adjust to a life without gluten from food sources like wheat, rye and barley. There is no treatment of the disease except lifelong gluten-free diet, but now a Danish/Norwegian research team publishes new research, that may lead to the development of a drug against the disease.
Gluten intolerance is often caused by celiac disease, which makes the human organism sensitive to gluten proteins from certain cereals. No known drug can cure the disease or make the patient able to eat gluten again, and therefore the ...
Training can lead to synesthetic experiences, study shows
2014-11-18
A new study has shown for the first time how people can be trained to "see" letters of the alphabet as colours in a way that simulates how those with synaesthesia experience their world.
The University of Sussex research, published today (18 November 2014) in Scientific Reports, also found that the training might potentially boost IQ.
Synaesthesia is a fascinating though little-understood neurological condition in which some people (estimated at around 1 in 23) experience an overlap in their senses. They "see" letters as specific colours, or can "taste" words, or ...
Noninvasive test that identifies patients at risk of kidney transplant rejection
2014-11-18
Researchers at the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and doctors at University Hospital of Bellvitge, together with a team of researchers from the University of California, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, California Pacific Medical Center, University of Pittsburgh, University Emory and Stanford University (USA) and the Children's Hospital of Mexico Federico Gomez, have developed a genetic test that identifies patients at high risk of kidney transplant rejection. From a peripheral blood sample and test development easier, you can tell noninvasively and before ...
Physicists suggest new way to detect dark matter
2014-11-18
For years physicists have been looking for the universe's elusive dark matter, but so far no one has seen any trace of it. Maybe we are looking in the wrong place? Now physicists from University of Southern Denmark propose a new technique to detect dark matter.
The universe consists of atoms and particles - and a whole lot more that still needs to be detected. We can only speculate about the existence of this unknown matter and energy.
"We know that app. 5 pct. of the universe consists of the known matter we are all made of. The rest is unknown. This unknown matter ...
Penrose's and Hawking's early math award revisited
2014-11-18
In 1966, it was Roger Penrose who won the prestigious Adams Prize for his essay "An analysis of the structure of space-time." The Adams Prize - named after the British mathematician John Couch Adams - is awarded each year by the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge to a young, UK-based mathematician. At the same time, Steven Hawking won an auxiliary to the Adams Prize for an essay entitled Singularities and the Geometry of Spacetime, shortly after completing his PhD. A copy of the original Hawking submission has now been reproduced in EPJ H.
That year, ...
Has one of Harald Bluetooth's fortresses come to light?
2014-11-18
"When the discovery was published back in September, we were certain that we had found a Viking ring fortress, but since then there have been intense discussions online and amongst archaeologists about whether we were right. Now we know without doubt that we have found a fortress from the 10th century," says archaeologist Nanna Holm, curator of the Danish Castle Centre.
Two carbon-14 dating results have removed all doubt regarding the authenticity of the Viking fortress. The carbon-14 dating was performed by the AMS 14C Dating Centre at the Department of Physics and Astronomy ...