Methylation of the genes ROD1, NLRC5, and HKR1 is associated with aging in Hainan centenarians

BACKGROUND: Human aging is a hot topic in biology, and it has been associated with DNA methylation changes at specific genomic sites. We aimed to study the changes of DNA methylation at a single-CpG-site resolution using peripheral blood samples from centenarians. METHODS: Using Illumina 450 K Methylation BeadChip microarray assays, we carried out a pool-based, epigenome-wide investigation of DNA methylation of blood samples from 12 centenarians and 12 healthy controls. Differentially methylated cytosine-phosphate-guanosine (CpG) sites were selected for further pyrosequencing analysis of blood samples from 30 centenarians and 30 healthy controls. RESULT: We identified a total of 31 high-confidence CpG sites with differential methylation profiles between the groups: 9 (29%) were hypermethylated and 22 (71%) were hypomethylated in centenarians. It was also found that hypermethylation of HKR1 and hypomethylation of ROD1 and NLRC5 genes strongly correlated with age in centenarians. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the methylation profile combination of HKR1, ROD1, and NLRC5 could be a promising biomarker for aging in Hainan centenarians. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12920-018-0334-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.