January 20, 2023
Keio University School of Medicine
Project Lecturer Motoshi Hayano of the Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, in a joint research project with Dr. David A. Sinclair and others at Harvard Medical School, has clarified the mechanism by which changes in the epigenome induced by DNA damage control aging as an acquired trait. In this large-scale collaborative study involving more than 60 researchers, the team created a new model animal for aging, the ICE (for Inducible Changes to the Epigenome) mouse, and reported the following:
1. The speed and timing of aging are determined by the epigenome, which dictates how genes are used, not by the accumulation of changes in the DNA sequence or genetic mutations.
2. Stress (DNA damage) is stored as epigenetic memory within cells and organs, thereby controlling aging.
3. The biological clock is accelerated by stress and can be reversed by Oct4, Sox2, and Klf4 (Yamanaka factors).
4. Abnormalities in gene expression mediated by the epigenome cause a decline in the function of organs such as the brain and muscles. The loss of the identity of individual cells and organs—the information on which genes to use appropriately—is a cause of aging.
It is hoped that these research findings will lead to the development of technologies for predicting aging and disease, as well as new therapeutic methods.
These research findings were published in the online edition of the American scientific journal Cell on January 12, 2023 (JST).
Please see below for the full press release.