Research Paper

Figure 5. Scatter plot of epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) in healthy individuals and those with Down syndrome. This scatter plot illustrates the Epigenetic Age Acceleration (EAA) for each participant in our study, contrasting healthy controls (n=22) with individuals diagnosed with Down syndrome (DS, n=20). EAA, determined by the discrepancy between epigenetic age and chronological age, is plotted for each individual, utilizing various epigenetic clocks: EpiAgePublic, DNAmAge, DNAmAgeHannum, PhenoAge, DNAmAgeSkinBloodClock, GrimAge v1, and GrimAge v2. Each point represents one individual’s EAA, with separate color codes for healthy controls and DS individuals. Unpaired t-tests were conducted to examine the differences in EAA between the groups, showing significant increase in EAA in DS: EpiAgePublic (p=0.0002), DNAmAge (p=0.0004), DNAmAgeHannum (p=0.002), PhenoAge (p=0.0002), DNAmAgeSkinBloodClock (p=0.0013), GrimAge v1 (p=0.0081), and GrimAge v2 (p=0.0016). ROC analysis, discussed in the results section, was performed to further assess the discriminative capability of each clock between the healthy and DS groups. This plot highlights the significant epigenetic age acceleration observed in individuals with Down syndrome in comparison to healthy controls.