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Epigenetic clocks and female fertility timeline: A new approach to an old issue?
Worldwide increase in life expectancy has boosted research on aging. Overcoming the concept of chronological age, higher attention has been addressed to biological age, which reflects a person’s real health state, and which may be the resulting combination of both intrinsic and environmental factors...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2023
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10070683/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37025178 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2023.1121231 |
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author | Li Piani, Letizia Vigano', Paola Somigliana, Edgardo |
author_facet | Li Piani, Letizia Vigano', Paola Somigliana, Edgardo |
author_sort | Li Piani, Letizia |
collection | PubMed |
description | Worldwide increase in life expectancy has boosted research on aging. Overcoming the concept of chronological age, higher attention has been addressed to biological age, which reflects a person’s real health state, and which may be the resulting combination of both intrinsic and environmental factors. As epigenetics may exert a pivotal role in the biological aging, epigenetic clocks were developed. They are based on mathematical models aimed at identifying DNA methylation patterns that can define the biological age and that can be adopted for different clinical scopes (i.e., estimation of the risks of developing age-related disorders or predicting lifespan). Recently, epigenetic clocks have gained a peculiar attention in the fertility research field, in particular in the female counterpart. The insight into the possible relations between epigenetic aging and women’s infertility might glean additional information about certain conditions that are still not completely understood. Moreover, they could disclose significant implications for health promotion programs in infertile women. Of relevance here is that the impact of biological age and epigenetics may not be limited to fertility status but could translate into pregnancy issues. Indeed, epigenetic alterations of the mother may transfer into the offspring, and pregnancy itself as well as related complications could contribute to epigenetic modifications in both the mother and newborn. However, even if the growing interest has culminated in the conspicuous production of studies on these topics, a global overview and the availability of validated instruments for diagnosis is still missing. The present narrative review aims to explore the possible bonds between epigenetic aging and fertility timeline. In the “infertility” section, we will discuss the advances on epigenetic clocks focusing on the different tissues examined (endometrium, peripheral blood, ovaries). In the “pregnancy” section, we will discuss the results obtained from placenta, umbilical cord and peripheral blood. The possible role of epigenetic aging on infertility mechanisms and pregnancy outcomes represents a question that may configure epigenetic clock as a bond between two apparently opposite worlds: infertility and pregnancy. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10070683 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-100706832023-04-05 Epigenetic clocks and female fertility timeline: A new approach to an old issue? Li Piani, Letizia Vigano', Paola Somigliana, Edgardo Front Cell Dev Biol Cell and Developmental Biology Worldwide increase in life expectancy has boosted research on aging. Overcoming the concept of chronological age, higher attention has been addressed to biological age, which reflects a person’s real health state, and which may be the resulting combination of both intrinsic and environmental factors. As epigenetics may exert a pivotal role in the biological aging, epigenetic clocks were developed. They are based on mathematical models aimed at identifying DNA methylation patterns that can define the biological age and that can be adopted for different clinical scopes (i.e., estimation of the risks of developing age-related disorders or predicting lifespan). Recently, epigenetic clocks have gained a peculiar attention in the fertility research field, in particular in the female counterpart. The insight into the possible relations between epigenetic aging and women’s infertility might glean additional information about certain conditions that are still not completely understood. Moreover, they could disclose significant implications for health promotion programs in infertile women. Of relevance here is that the impact of biological age and epigenetics may not be limited to fertility status but could translate into pregnancy issues. Indeed, epigenetic alterations of the mother may transfer into the offspring, and pregnancy itself as well as related complications could contribute to epigenetic modifications in both the mother and newborn. However, even if the growing interest has culminated in the conspicuous production of studies on these topics, a global overview and the availability of validated instruments for diagnosis is still missing. The present narrative review aims to explore the possible bonds between epigenetic aging and fertility timeline. In the “infertility” section, we will discuss the advances on epigenetic clocks focusing on the different tissues examined (endometrium, peripheral blood, ovaries). In the “pregnancy” section, we will discuss the results obtained from placenta, umbilical cord and peripheral blood. The possible role of epigenetic aging on infertility mechanisms and pregnancy outcomes represents a question that may configure epigenetic clock as a bond between two apparently opposite worlds: infertility and pregnancy. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-21 /pmc/articles/PMC10070683/ /pubmed/37025178 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2023.1121231 Text en Copyright © 2023 Li Piani, Vigano' and Somigliana. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Cell and Developmental Biology Li Piani, Letizia Vigano', Paola Somigliana, Edgardo Epigenetic clocks and female fertility timeline: A new approach to an old issue? |
title | Epigenetic clocks and female fertility timeline: A new approach to an old issue? |
title_full | Epigenetic clocks and female fertility timeline: A new approach to an old issue? |
title_fullStr | Epigenetic clocks and female fertility timeline: A new approach to an old issue? |
title_full_unstemmed | Epigenetic clocks and female fertility timeline: A new approach to an old issue? |
title_short | Epigenetic clocks and female fertility timeline: A new approach to an old issue? |
title_sort | epigenetic clocks and female fertility timeline: a new approach to an old issue? |
topic | Cell and Developmental Biology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10070683/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37025178 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fcell.2023.1121231 |
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