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Research Paper|Volume 13, Issue 10|pp 14039—14052

Combined healthy lifestyle score and risk of epigenetic aging: a discordant monozygotic twin study

Hexiang Peng1, Wenjing Gao1, Weihua Cao1, Jun Lv1, Canqing Yu1, Tao Wu1, Shengfeng Wang1, Zengchang Pang2, Min Yu3, Hua Wang4, Xianping Wu5, Liming Li1
  • 1Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing 100191, China
  • 2Qingdao Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Qingdao 266033, China
  • 3Zhejiang Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hangzhou 310051, China
  • 4Jiangsu Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing 210009, China
  • 5Sichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Chengdu 610041, China
Received: January 14, 2021Accepted: April 2, 2021Published: May 25, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203022

Copyright: © 2021 Peng 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

We investigated whether lifestyle influences epigenetic aging in 143 monozygotic twin pairs discordant for the combined healthy lifestyle score. Twins were scored for four lifestyle factors as unhealthy or healthy; non-smoker, moderate drinker, adequate fruit and vegetable intake, and sufficient physical activity. The combined healthy lifestyle score was calculated for each participant by summing the binary score for each factor. Individual and co-twin analyses were used to assess the relationship between single or combined lifestyle scores, along with DNA methylation age acceleration (AA) calculated using Horvath’s and Li’s epigenetic clocks, focusing on AA and intrinsic epigenetic age acceleration (IEAA) measures. Compared with the twins that scored no or one healthy lifestyle point, those who scored four healthy lifestyle points had lower Li_IEAA with similar results observed in the co-twin analysis. No significant relationships were found in analyses based on Horvath’s clock, although the direction of correlations was consistent with that determined using Li’s clock. Smoking and drinking did not significantly affect DNA methylation AA; however, physical activity and intake of vegetables and fruits did, although the influence varied depending on the epigenetic clock. Our findings suggest that a healthy lifestyle may be an important way to delay aging and prevent age-related diseases.