Stress Rapidly Increases Biological Age, but Recovery Turns Back the Clock

summary: Stress can cause a rapid and temporary increase in biological age, which can be reversed upon recovery, according to a new study. found that caused short-term fluctuations in biological age in humans and mice. stresses the importance of lowering your biological age for

sauce: Celpress

A study published in the journal April 21 found that the biological age of humans and mice increases rapidly in response to various forms of stress and then reverses upon recovery from stress. cell metabolism.

These changes occur over relatively short periods of days or months according to multiple independent epigenetic aging clocks.

“The discovery of this fluid, fluctuating and malleable age challenges the long-held notion that biological age rises in one direction over the course of a lifetime,” said co-senior study author at Duke University School of Medicine. One James White said:

“Previous reports have suggested the possibility of short-term variations in biological age, but the question of whether such changes are reversible has so far remained unexplored. Importantly, the triggers for such changes were also unknown.”

Although the biological age of an organism is thought to increase steadily over life, it is now clear that biological age is not perfectly related to chronological age. Individuals may be biologically older or younger than their chronological age implies.

Furthermore, increasing evidence in animal models and humans indicates that biological age can be influenced by disease, medication, lifestyle changes, and environmental exposure, among other factors. is showing.

“Despite the widespread acceptance that biological age is at least somewhat malleable, the extent to which biological age undergoes reversible changes throughout life and the events that cause such changes remain unknown. remains.” Harvard Medical School.

To address this knowledge gap, researchers harnessed the power of the DNA methylation clock. This was innovated based on the observation that methylation levels at various sites across the genome predictably change over time.

They measured changes in biological age in humans and mice in response to various stress stimuli. In a series of experiments, researchers surgically attached pairs of mice aged 3 months and 20 months, in a procedure known as heterochronous parabiosis.

The results reveal that biological age can increase in response to stress over a relatively short period of time, but this increase is temporary and after recovery from stress, the basal age increases. Tend to return to the line. At the epigenetic, transcriptomic and metabolomic levels, the biological age of young mice was increased by metachronous parabiosis and restored after surgical ablation.

“The increase in biological age from exposure to aged blood is consistent with previous reports of adverse age-related changes from heterochronous blood exchange procedures,” said Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. says Jesse Poganick, lead author of

“However, as we observed, the reversibility of such changes has not yet been reported. From this initial insight, other naturally occurring circumstances also cause reversible changes in biological age.” I hypothesized that it was possible.”

As predicted, temporal changes in biological age also occurred during major surgery, pregnancy, and severe COVID-19 in humans or mice. For example, trauma patients experienced a strong and rapid increase in biological age after emergency surgery. Nonetheless, this increase was reversed and biological age returned to baseline in the days following surgery.

Similarly, pregnant subjects experience postpartum recovery of their biological age at varying rates and magnitudes, and an immunosuppressive drug called tocilizumab may help recover their biological age in convalescent COVID-19 patients. has been strengthened.

“The findings suggest that severe stress increases mortality, at least in part, by increasing biological age,” Gladyshev said.

“This idea immediately suggests that mortality may be reduced by lowering biological age, and that the ability to recover from stress may be an important determinant of successful aging and longevity. Finally, biological age may be a useful parameter in assessing physiological stress and its reduction.”

Additional findings suggest that second-generation human DNA methylation clocks give consistent outputs, whereas first-generation clocks generally lack the sensitivity to detect temporal changes in biological age. showed.

“Whatever the underlying reason, these data underscore the critical importance of carefully selecting the appropriate DNA methylation clock for the analysis at hand, especially as many clocks continue It’s important because it’s coming to the fore,” says Gladyshev.

Although this study highlights previously unrecognized aspects of the nature of biological aging, the researchers acknowledge some important limitations.

Although they characterized the parabiosis model at multiple omics levels, these tools are the most powerful aging biomarkers currently available and are thus the main focus for inferring biological age in human studies. was dependent on the DNA methylation clock.

Furthermore, our findings are limited in our ability to examine the relationship between short-term variations in biological age and lifelong biological aging trajectories.

“Our study reveals a new layer of aging dynamics that should be considered in future studies,” says White. Our goal is to understand how successful recovery from such elevations contributes to accelerated aging over a lifetime.”

Summary written with the help of ChatGPT AI technology

About this Aging and Stress Research News

author: Christopher Bench
sauce: Celpress
contact: Christopher Wenke – Cellpress
image: image is public domain

Original research: open access.
“Biological age is increased by stress and reversed upon recoveryBy James White et al. cell metabolism

overview

Biological age is increased by stress and reversed upon recovery

highlight

• Biological age fluctuates rapidly in mice and humans
• Severe stress induces an increase in biological age that reverses upon recovery
• Parabiosis, Surgery, Pregnancy, and COVID-19 Temporarily Increase Biological Age
• Biological age recovery rate may predict jellotherapy

summary

Aging is classically conceptualized as a trajectory of ever-increasing damage accumulation and loss of function, leading to increased 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. We found that the biological age of young mice was increased by metachronous parabiosis and recovered after surgical ablation at the epigenetic, transcriptomic and metabolome levels.

We also identify transient changes in biological age due to major surgery, pregnancy, and severe COVID-19 in humans and mice. Taken together, these data show that biological age increases sharply in response to various forms of stress and reverses upon recovery from stress.

Our study reveals a new layer of aging dynamics that should be considered in future studies. There is a possibility.