Tag

Epigenetics

All articles tagged with #epigenetics

science1 day ago•4 min saved

Seven-year lab-grown brain organoids reveal time-keeping in a dish

Harvard researchers grew brain organoids for up to seven years, using DNA methylation epigenetic clocks to show the artificial brains develop and effectively age like human brains; mixing older organoid tissue with younger tissue warped development, suggesting organoids can record developmental time, though most organoids die from oxygen limits and are destroyed after experiments. The work illuminates brain development and offers new angles for studying neurodegenerative diseases and other conditions.

via New York Post|

#brain-organoids #developmental-biology #epigenetics

health1 day ago•10 min saved

Hippocampal Neurogenesis Halts in Adults with Major Depression

Columbia University researchers link major depressive disorder to stalled adult hippocampal neurogenesis, showing reduced neuron birth impairs pattern separation and emotional memory. Post-mortem analysis of about half a million brain cells reveals gene and epigenetic changes, including inflammation, pointing to neurogenesis as a therapeutic target and suggesting depression could be classified by molecular features rather than brain region.

via News-Medical|

#depression #epigenetics #health

science4 days ago•5 min saved

Lab-Grown Brain Organoids Reveal Time Memory and Long-Term Maturation

Researchers have created brain organoids that can sense the passage of time, retain a developmental age, and remain viable for up to six years in culture. Using epigenetic clocks and experiments where different-aged organoid components were reassembled into “chimeroids,” the study shows cells preserve a memory of their maturation history and can influence the pace of development, providing a powerful model for studying human brain maturation and neoteny in vitro.

via ScienceAlert|

#aging #brain #epigenetics

health5 days ago•8 min saved

A Month of Vegan Eating Linked to Lower Inflammation and Hints of Slower Biological Aging

A small randomized trial of 48 healthy adults found that following a vegan diet for four weeks reduced inflammation and altered DNA methylation in pathways related to aging, with some aging measures (epigenetic clocks) suggesting slower biological aging. Results are preliminary and limited to blood markers; the short duration and small sample mean findings may not generalize, and longer, larger studies are needed. Diet quality also matters in vegan eating.

via Medical News Today|

#aging #dna-methylation #epigenetics

neuroscience6 days ago•115 min saved

Lab-grown brain organoids reveal an intrinsic developmental clock that records years in culture

Researchers cultured human cortical organoids for over five years and found that they age along with in vivo humans, showing transcriptional maturation and DNA methylation changes that track culture time. Epigenetic clocks predicted the organoids’ age with high accuracy, and mixed-age (heterochronic) organoids demonstrated that older progenitors retain a memory of past development and can be steered to produce late-stage neurons, skipping earlier fates. This work positions long-term organoid culture as a powerful in vitro model to study postnatal human brain maturation and neoteny.

via Nature|

#aging #brain-organoids #developmental-timing

science11 days ago•12 min saved

Aging as a Program: Remodeling the Cell Society Across Life

A study analyzing 21 million mouse cells across five ages argues aging is a staged, programmed remodeling of the body's cell populations, not random molecular decay. Specific cell types rise or fall in defined windows—early loss of fat, muscle, and some brain progenitors; midlife depletion of tissue-support cells and immune components; later expansion of aging-associated immune cells—with genomic regions opening or closing in a coordinated pattern. These signals hint at upstream programs driving aging, echoed by midlife protein changes in humans. The work suggests aging begins before age 30 and that slowing it may require early interventions targeting vulnerable cell types and their signaling pathways.

via Quanta Magazine|

#aging #cell-biology #developmental-biology

health14 days ago•8 min saved

Month-Long Vegan Diet Shifts DNA Methylation and Aging Clocks

In a small 4-week, isocaloric study of 48 healthy adults, those on a vegan diet showed a statistically significant ~1.7-year reduction on the PhenoAge biological aging clock, while a GrimAge clock showed a smaller, non-significant shift and a chronological-age clock trended higher. Immune-cell changes (lower neutrophils, higher CD4+ T cells) aligned with blood tests. Genome-wide DNA methylation shifts occurred but most did not survive correction for multiple comparisons, making results preliminary. Limitations include the small sample size and use of a less-clean vegan diet (allowing processed foods); researchers plan longer, more controlled studies to confirm findings.

via StudyFinds|

#aging #clinical-trial #dna-methylation

health16 days ago•5 min saved

Dad’s Preconception Diet Linked to Baby’s Early Body Traits

A Brazilian study of 43 family units found that fathers who consumed more ultra-processed foods before conception tended to have babies with higher birth weight and thicker skin-folds, suggesting paternal diet may influence fetal development via epigenetic mechanisms, though the study only shows correlation and more research is needed.

via ScienceAlert|

#birth-weight #epigenetics #health

neuroscience18 days ago•5 min saved

Early Trauma Rewrites Brain Gene Activity in Dopamine Circuit

A mouse study in Neuron shows early-life stress increases the enzyme SETD7 in ventral tegmental area neurons, raising H3K4me1 marks and loosening DNA to prime dopamine-related genes for later activation. This makes animals more vulnerable to stress and anxiety, providing a potential biological mechanism for how childhood trauma increases mental-health risk and highlighting epigenetic targets for interventions, though human validation is needed; positive experiences might offer protective effects.

via ScienceAlert|

#dopamine #early-life-adversity #epigenetics

life-style-health-and-families20 days ago•12 min saved

Month-Long Vegan Diet Linked to Slower Biological Aging, Study Finds

A small study of about 50 adults (half vegan, half meat-eaters with similar calorie intake) found that a one-month vegan diet altered DNA methylation and slowed aging according to epigenetic clocks, with vegans showing lower neutrophils and higher CD4 T cells; researchers say nutrition can shape biology at the molecular level, but larger trials are needed to confirm long-term health benefits, and diet quality matters given concerns about processed vegan foods.

via The Independent|

#aging #diet #epigenetics

science21 days ago•41 min saved

Non-linear aging: identifying critical transition windows for healthspan interventions

This Perspective argues that human aging is non-linear, featuring distinct developmental and life-stage transitions that may be optimal windows for interventions; while linear models capture some age-related effects, non-linear approaches (e.g., broken-stick/ sliding-window analyses, GAMs, dynamic models) better reveal when systems shift states; recognizing and studying these transitions across omics and tissues could guide timing of therapies to slow aging and curb age-related disease.

via Nature|

#aging #biomarkers #epigenetics

science22 days ago•29 min saved

Conserved euchromatin, diverse heterochromatin across eukaryotes revealed by iChIP2 profiling

A Nature Genetics letter reports a cross‑species chromatin profiling approach (iChIP2) to map histone post‑translational modifications across diverse eukaryotes. The study finds highly conserved euchromatin states at active gene promoters and bodies, but reveals lineage‑specific heterochromatin configurations defined by combinations of marks such as H3K9me3, H3K27me3 and H3K79 methylations. The results suggest core histone marks are ancient and broadly conserved, while their functional readouts have diversified through evolution to shape different chromatin landscapes and epigenetic memory across lineages.

via Nature|

#chromatin #epigenetics #evolution

science22 days ago•7 min saved

Dolphins’ Sponge Foraging May Leave Epigenetic Footprints

Researchers find that a subset of Shark Bay dolphins that sponge foraging show subtle DNA methylation differences, suggesting a link between culturally learned behavior and epigenetic change; a machine-learning model distinguished spongers from non-spongers using multiple methylation sites, though causality and whether changes are inherited remain unclear.

via ScienceAlert|

#culture #dolphins #epigenetics

science26 days ago•48 min saved

Multi-omic Regulation of Cellular Senescence

Nature Reviews Genetics surveys how genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic programs coordinate the induction, maintenance and heterogeneity of cellular senescence, highlighting the DNA damage response and non-genotoxic stress, epigenetic remodeling and SASP-driven intercellular signaling, while calling for next-generation biomarkers and single‑cell multi-omics approaches to accurately identify and target senescent cells.

via Nature|

#aging #cellular-senescence #dna-damage-response

science27 days ago•36 min saved

Epigenetic division counter times stem cell fate in the Drosophila gut

Drosophila intestinal stem cells count their self-renewal divisions to time multipotent fate switching: after producing an enteroendocrine mother cell (EMC) they complete eight divisions to generate enterocytes (ECs), and at the ninth division switch back to EMC production for enteroendocrine cells (EECs). This division-counting memory is driven by opposing histone marks—TrxG-dependent H3K4me3 and H3K36me3 decline while PcG-dependent H3K27me3 accumulates—triggering fate switching once a threshold is reached. Transient Notch signaling from EMCs initiates the count, and the system is tunable via TrxG/PcG activity while remaining resilient to injury, with implications for engineered tissue growth and differentiation-d disorder therapies.

via Nature|

#drosophila #epigenetics #histone-modifications