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Opsasnick LA, Zhao W, Schmitz LL, Ratliff SM, Faul JD, Zhou X, Needham BL, Smith JA. Epigenome-wide association study of long-term psychosocial stress in older adults. Epigenetics 2024; 19:2323907. [PMID: 38431869 PMCID: PMC10913704 DOI: 10.1080/15592294.2024.2323907] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2023] [Accepted: 02/21/2024] [Indexed: 03/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Long-term psychosocial stress is strongly associated with negative physical and mental health outcomes, as well as adverse health behaviours; however, little is known about the role that stress plays on the epigenome. One proposed mechanism by which stress affects DNA methylation is through health behaviours. We conducted an epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) of cumulative psychosocial stress (n = 2,689) from the Health and Retirement Study (mean age = 70.4 years), assessing DNA methylation (Illumina Infinium HumanMethylationEPIC Beadchip) at 789,656 CpG sites. For identified CpG sites, we conducted a formal mediation analysis to examine whether smoking, alcohol use, physical activity, and body mass index (BMI) mediate the relationship between stress and DNA methylation. Nine CpG sites were associated with psychosocial stress (all p < 9E-07; FDR q < 0.10). Additionally, health behaviours and/or BMI mediated 9.4% to 21.8% of the relationship between stress and methylation at eight of the nine CpGs. Several of the identified CpGs were in or near genes associated with cardiometabolic traits, psychosocial disorders, inflammation, and smoking. These findings support our hypothesis that psychosocial stress is associated with DNA methylation across the epigenome. Furthermore, specific health behaviours mediate only a modest percentage of this relationship, providing evidence that other mechanisms may link stress and DNA methylation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren A. Opsasnick
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Wei Zhao
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Lauren L. Schmitz
- Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Scott M. Ratliff
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Jessica D. Faul
- Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Xiang Zhou
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Belinda L. Needham
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
| | - Jennifer A. Smith
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
- Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
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Abstract
Social epigenomics is an area of science that evaluates why and how different social factors and processes affect different components of the epigenome. As it happens with most of the new areas in science, social epigenetics being a relatively new area, only limited progress has been made. However, the potential of implicating social epigenomics in improving health and health related policies is tremendous. Epidemiologic studies evaluating social, behavior, family, and environmental factors have helped understand social inequality and develop the area of social epigenomics. Most of the information in social epidemiology has been gathered from genetic studies. Now the time has come that we may apply similar approaches in social epigenomics because technologies of determining methylation, histone, and noncoding RNA profiling are well developed. The focus of this chapter is to understand the role of epigenetic regulation in social experiences at various stages in life due to altered function of genes and affecting health in populations with different races/ethnicity. Here we discuss the current challenges and opportunities in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Krishna Banaudha
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, School of Medicine and Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA.
| | - Vineet Kumar
- Department of Pharmacology, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Mukesh Verma
- Epidemiology and Genomics Research Program, National Cancer Institute, Rockville, MD, USA
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