Negative Life Events and Epigenetic Ageing: A Study in the Netherlands Twin Register

B.M.A. Gonggrijp*, S.G.A. van de Weijer, C.C.J.H. Bijleveld, D.I. Boomsma, Jenny van Dongen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

We aimed to understand the long-term impact of negative life events on epigenetic aging in 1783 adults from the Netherlands Twin Register, analyzing five epigenetic biomarkers (Hannum, Horvath, PhenoAge, GrimAge, DunedinPACE) and a series of negative life events, including victimization and economic hardship. In population-level analyses, associations between a higher number of negative life events (particularly financial adversities, sexual crimes, and job loss) were seen for the GrimAge biomarker. The association between the number of negative life events and financial problems and epigenetic age acceleration measured by the GrimAge biomarker persisted after adjusting for BMI, smoking, and white blood cell counts. In monozygotic twin pairs discordant for negative life events (263 pairs) the associations were diminished, indicating that the population associations may be confounded by shared familial (genetic and environmental) factors. These findings underscore the intricate link between environmental stressors and biological aging, stressing the need for comprehensive studies considering both genetic and environmental influences.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere73420
Number of pages16
JournalBehavior Genetics
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 11 Dec 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2024.

Keywords

  • Biological aging
  • Discordant twin analyses
  • DNA methylation
  • Epigenetic biomarkers
  • Negative life events

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