0000000000801592
AUTHOR
Kujala Urho M
Leisure-time physical activity and DNA methylation age-a twin study.
Background Epigenetic clocks may increase our understanding on human aging and how genetic and environmental factors regulate an individual aging process. One of the most promising clocks is Horvath’s DNA methylation (DNAm) age. Age acceleration, i.e., discrepancy between DNAm age and chronological age, tells us whether the person is biologically young or old compared to his/her chronological age. Several environmental and lifestyle factors have been shown to affect life span. We investigated genetic and environmental predictors of DNAm age in young and older monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins with a focus on leisure time physical activity. Results Quantitative genetic modeling revea…
iGEMS: an integrated model for identification of alternative exon usage events.
Abstract DNA microarrays and RNAseq are complementary methods for studying RNA molecules. Current computational methods to determine alternative exon usage (AEU) using such data require impractical visual inspection and still yield high false-positive rates. Integrated Gene and Exon Model of Splicing (iGEMS) adapts a gene-level residuals model with a gene size adjusted false discovery rate and exon-level analysis to circumvent these limitations. iGEMS was applied to two new DNA microarray datasets, including the high coverage Human Transcriptome Arrays 2.0 and performance was validated using RT-qPCR. First, AEU was studied in adipocytes treated with (n = 9) or without (n = 8) the anti-diabe…
Six-Week Endurance Exercise Alters Gut Metagenome That Is not Reflected in Systemic Metabolism in Over-weight Women.
Recent studies suggest that exercise alters the gut microbiome. We determined whether six-weeks endurance exercise, without changing diet, affected the gut metagenome and systemic metabolites of overweight women. Previously sedentary overweight women (n = 19) underwent a six-weeks endurance exercise intervention, but two were excluded due to antibiotic therapy. The gut microbiota composition and functions were analyzed by 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and metagenomics. Body composition was analyzed with DXA X-ray densitometer and serum metabolomics with NMR metabolomics. Total energy and energy-yielding nutrient intakes were analyzed from food records using Micro-Nutrica software. Serum…
Persistence or change in leisure-time physical activity habits and waist gain during early adulthood: a twin-study.
Objective To determine the relationship between persistence or change in leisure-time physical activity habits and waist gain among young adults. Design and Methods Population-based cohort study among 3383 Finnish twin individuals (1578 men) from five birth cohorts (1975–1979), who answered questionnaires at mean ages of 24.4 y (SD 0.9) and 33.9 y (SD 1.2), with reported self-measured waist circumference. Persistence or change in leisure-time physical activity habits was defined based on thirds of activity metabolic equivalent h/day during follow-up (mean 9.5 y; SD 0.7). Results Decreased activity was linked to greater waist gain compared to increased activity (3.6 cm, P<0.001 for men; 3.1 …