February 2, 2023
Iwate Medical University, Iwate Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization
Keio University School of Medicine
KDDI Research, Inc.
Key Findings
The Iwate Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization of Iwate Medical University (IMM), the Keio University School of Medicine, and KDDI Research, Inc. have for the first time developed a new method for estimating age from epigenomic information in the blood of Japanese individuals and calculated the epigenomic age of supercentenarians (aged 100 and over), including those aged 110 and over.
The results confirmed that supercentenarians maintain a younger epigenomic age.
It was revealed that in supercentenarians, the epigenomic state around oncogenes and genes related to cognitive function is maintained at a level comparable to that of younger individuals.
On the other hand, the epigenomic state around genes involved in anti-inflammatory responses in supercentenarians was found to be in a more aged state.
This suggests that achieving exceptional healthy longevity may require not only maintaining a young epigenomic state but also changes in which specific epigenomic regions become more aged.
It is hoped that this newly developed epigenomic age can be used as an indicator for developing lifestyle improvements and preventive methods to achieve healthy longevity.
A research group—comprising Specially Appointed Lecturer Shohei Komaki and Professor Atsushi Shimizu, Head of the Division of Biomedical Information Analysis, at the Iwate Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, Iwate Medical University (Headquarters: Yahaba, Shiwa-gun, Iwate; President: Mari Sasaki; hereinafter "IMM"); Associate Professor Eri Arai and Professor Yasue Kanai of the Department of Pathology, Keio University School of Medicine (Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; Dean: Takanori Kanai); Professor Hideyuki Okano of the Department of Physiology, Keio University School of Medicine; Center Director Yasumichi Arai and Collaborative Researcher Nobuyoshi Hirose of the Center for Supercentenarian Medical Research, Keio University School of Medicine; and Core Researcher Masatoshi Nagata and Expert Akio Yoneyama of KDDI Research, Inc. (Head Office: Fujimino, Saitama; President and CEO: Hajime Nakamura)—selected 421 healthy individuals from their 20s to 70s from participants in the Tohoku Medical Megabank (TMM) Project's community-based cohort study. They developed a new method for estimating age using information from massively parallel DNA sequencers, which differs from the conventional age prediction method using DNA microarrays, and analyzed the epigenomic state of 94 supercentenarians aged 100 and over from the Tokyo Centenarian Study (TCS) and the Japanese Semi-supercentenarian Study (JSS).
The results showed that the estimated age of the supercentenarians was younger than their chronological age. In particular, the researchers found that the epigenomic state of cancer-related genes centered on CD44 and a group of genes related to cognitive function, such as CNTNAP2 , was maintained at a level comparable to that of younger individuals. On the other hand, the epigenomic state around genes involved in anti-inflammatory responses, such as SMAD7 , was found to be in a more aged state.
The above findings were published online in the international scientific journal The Lancet Healthy Longevity on February 1, 2023 ( https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhl/article/PIIS2666-7568(23)00002-8/fulltext ).
For the full press release, please see below.