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Published on: April 26, 2024
Epigenetic age analysis of brain in major depressive disorder
Zongchang Li1, Ying He2, Xiaoqian Ma2
1Mental Health Institute of the Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Chinese National Clinical Research Center on Mental Disorders (Xiangya), Chinese National Technology Institute on Mental Disorders, Hunan Key Laboratory of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Changsha, Hunan 410011, China; Center for Medical Genetics, School of Life Sciences, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
Abstract:
A large body of evidence indicates major depressive disorder (MDD) associated with biological aging acceleration. In this study, we aim to assess epigenetic aging in different prefrontal sub-regions and cell types from postmortem tissues in MDD by using two public methylation datasets (subjects are 40 and 58 respectively). Results showed that brain epigenetic age has a strong correlation with chronological age in both datasets. However, there are no significant differences in epigenetic aging acceleration between MDD and controls in all prefrontal sub-regions and cell types. In conclusion, this study provides evidence against epigenetic aging acceleration in the brain in MDD.
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