Biological age is increased by stress and restored upon recovery

Abstract

Aging is classically conceptualized as an ever-increasing trajectory of damage accumulation and loss of function, leading to increases in morbidity and mortality. However, recent in vitro studies have raised the possibility of age reversal. Here, we report that biological age is fluid and exhibits rapid changes in both directions. By applying advanced epigenetic aging clocks, we find that the biological age of young mice is increased by heterochronic parabiosis and restored following surgical detachment of animals. We also identify transient changes in biological age during major surgery, pregnancy, and severe COVID-19 in humans and/or mice. Together, these data show that biological age undergoes a rapid increase in response to diverse forms of stress, which is reversed following recovery from stress. Our study uncovers a new layer of aging dynamics that should be considered in future studies. Elevation of biological age by stress may be a quantifiable and actionable target for future interventions.

Epigenetic clocks indicate that kidney transplantation and not dialysis mitigate the effects of renal ageing

“…Our results are consistent with clinical observations that KT leads to greater physiological improvement, better quality of life and increased life expectancy compared with dialysis. They are consistent with a recent publication reporting increased age acceleration upon physiological stress and amelioration of this age acceleration after recovery [39]. As vascular calcification and immune ageing are not reversed by KT, this may contribute to why we observe a limited amelioration of the age acceleration in the KT group [31, 40, 41].…”

Aging is associated with a systemic length-associated transcriptome imbalance

“…Jointly, these observations invite the unsupported hypotheses that during aging there may not be a single origin for the lengthassociated transcriptome imbalance and that the length-associated transcriptome imbalance in aging instead represents an intermediate step within a 'bowtie structure' through which multiple environmental and internal conditions simultaneously affect multiple downstream outputs [55][56][57] . The length-associated transcriptome imbalance thus may offer itself as an explanation for the recent observation of inter-tissue convergence of gene expression during aging 58 .…”

Potential reversal of biological age in women following an 8-week methylation-supportive diet and lifestyle program: a case series

“…Even though he did not complete the program, he did obtain his DNAmAge at the eight-week time point, where it had increased to 61.58. Sudden acute acceleration in biological age due to diverse stressful events (which is then reversed following recovery from the event) has been documented (Preprint) [ 13 ].…”