Aging and chronic sun exposure cause distinct epigenetic changes in human skin

Epigenetic changes are widely considered to play an important role in aging, but experimental evidence to support this hypothesis has been scarce. We have used array-based analysis to determine genome-scale DNA methylation patterns from human skin samples and to investigate the effects of aging, chr...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS genetics 2010-05, Vol.6 (5), p.e1000971-e1000971
Main Authors: Grönniger, Elke, Weber, Barbara, Heil, Oliver, Peters, Nils, Stäb, Franz, Wenck, Horst, Korn, Bernhard, Winnefeld, Marc, Lyko, Frank
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aging
Aging - genetics
Deoxyribonucleic acid
Dermatology/Photodermatology and Skin Aging
Developmental Biology/Aging
DNA
DNA Methylation
Epigenesis, Genetic
Genetics
Genetics and Genomics/Epigenetics
Humans
Medical research
Molecular Biology/DNA Methylation
Skin - metabolism
Skin - radiation effects
Sunlight
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Epigenetic changes are widely considered to play an important role in aging, but experimental evidence to support this hypothesis has been scarce. We have used array-based analysis to determine genome-scale DNA methylation patterns from human skin samples and to investigate the effects of aging, chronic sun exposure, and tissue variation. Our results reveal a high degree of tissue specificity in the methylation patterns and also showed very little interindividual variation within tissues. Data stratification by age revealed that DNA from older individuals was characterized by a specific hypermethylation pattern affecting less than 1% of the markers analyzed. Interestingly, stratification by sun exposure produced a fundamentally different pattern with a significant trend towards hypomethylation. Our results thus identify defined age-related DNA methylation changes and suggest that these alterations might contribute to the phenotypic changes associated with skin aging.
ISSN:1553-7404
1553-7390
1553-7404
DOI:10.1371/journal.pgen.1000971