Research Paper Volume 11, Issue 10 pp 3238—3249
Rapamycin retards epigenetic ageing of keratinocytes independently of its effects on replicative senescence, proliferation and differentiation
- 1 Human Genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- 2 Biostatistics, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
- 3 Elizabeth House Medical Practice, Warlingham, Surrey CR6 9LF, United Kingdom
- 4 Radiation Effects Department, Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards, Public Health England, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0RQ, United Kingdom
Received: March 2, 2018 Accepted: May 15, 2019 Published: May 26, 2019
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.101976How to Cite
Copyright: Horvath et al. This is an open‐access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
The advent of epigenetic clocks has prompted questions about the place of epigenetic ageing within the current understanding of ageing biology. It was hitherto unclear whether epigenetic ageing represents a distinct mode of ageing or a manifestation of a known characteristic of ageing. We report here that epigenetic ageing is not affected by replicative senescence, telomere length, somatic cell differentiation, cellular proliferation rate or frequency. It is instead retarded by rapamycin, the potent inhibitor of the mTOR complex which governs many pathways relating to cellular metabolism. Rapamycin, however, is also an effective inhibitor of cellular senescence. Hence cellular metabolism underlies two independent arms of ageing – cellular senescence and epigenetic ageing. The demonstration that a compound that targets metabolism can slow epigenetic ageing provides a long-awaited point-of-entry into elucidating the molecular pathways that underpin the latter. Lastly, we report here an in vitro assay, validated in humans, that recapitulates human epigenetic ageing that can be used to investigate and identify potential interventions that can inhibit or retard it.