Abstract

Background:

High surrounding greenness has many health benefits and might contribute to slower biological aging. However, very few studies have evaluated this from the perspective of epigenetics.

Objectives:

We aimed to evaluate the association between surrounding greenness and biological aging based on DNA methylation.

Methods:

We derived Horvath’s DNA methylation age (DNAmAge), Hannum’s DNAmAge, PhenoAge, and GrimAge based on DNA methylation measured in peripheral blood samples from 479 Australian women in 130 families. Measures of DNAmAge acceleration (DNAmAgeAC) were derived from the residuals after regressing each DNAmAge metric on chronological age. Greenness was represented by satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) metrics within 300-, 500-, 1,000-, and $\mathrm{2,000}\text{-m}$ buffers surrounding participant addresses. Greenness-DNAmAgeAC associations were estimated using a within-sibship design fitted by linear mixed effect models, adjusting for familial clustering and important covariates.

Results:

Greenness metrics were associated with significantly lower DNAmAgeAC based on GrimAge acceleration, suggesting slower biological aging with higher greenness based on both NDVI and EVI in $300–\mathrm{2,000}\mathrm{m}$ buffer areas. For example, each interquartile range increase in NDVI within $\mathrm{1,000}\mathrm{m}$ was associated with a 0.59 (95% CI: 0.18, 1.01)–year decrease in GrimAge acceleration. Greenness was also inversely associated with three of the eight components of GrimAge, specifically, DNA methylation-based surrogates of serum cystatin-C, serum growth differentiation factor 15, and smoking pack years. Associations between greenness and biological aging measured by Horvath’s and Hannum’s DNAmAgeAC were less consistent, and depended on neighborhood socioeconomic status. No significant associations were estimated for PhenoAge acceleration.

Discussion:

Higher surrounding greenness was associated with slower biological aging, as indicated by GrimAge age acceleration, in Australian women. Associations were also evident for three individual components of GrimAge, but were inconsistent for other measures of biological aging. Additional studies are needed to confirm our results. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP8793

中文翻译：

---

基于 DNA 甲基化的环境绿色和生物老化：澳大利亚的双胞胎和家庭研究

摘要

背景：

高环境的绿色对健康有很多好处，并可能有助于减缓生物老化。然而，很少有研究从表观遗传学的角度对此进行评估。

目标：

我们旨在基于 DNA 甲基化评估周围绿色与生物老化之间的关联。

方法：

我们根据来自 130 个家庭的 479 名澳大利亚女性的外周血样本中测量的 DNA 甲基化情况推导出 Horvath 的 DNA 甲基化年龄 (DNAmAge)、Hannum 的 DNAmAge、PhenoAge 和 GrimAge。DNAmAge 加速度 (DNAmAgeAC) 的测量值是根据实足年龄回归每个 DNAmAge 度量后的残差得出的。绿度由卫星衍生的归一化植被指数 (NDVI) 和增强植被指数 (EVI) 指标在 300、500、1,000 和$\mathrm{2,000}\text{-m}$围绕参与者地址的缓冲区。使用线性混合效应模型拟合的同胞内设计估计 Greenness-DNAmAgeAC 关联，调整家族聚类和重要协变量。

结果：

基于 GrimAge 加速，绿色指标与显着降低的 DNAmAgeAC 相关，表明基于 NDVI 和 EVI 的生物老化速度较慢，绿色度较高$300–\mathrm{2,000}\mathrm{米}$缓冲区。例如，NDVI 的每个四分位距在$\mathrm{1,000}\mathrm{米}$与 GrimAge 加速度下降 0.59 (95% CI: 0.18, 1.01) 年相关。绿色还与 GrimAge 的八种成分中的三种呈负相关，特别是基于 DNA 甲基化的血清 胱抑素-C 替代物、血清生长分化因子 15 和吸烟包年数。Horvath 和 Hannum 的 DNAmAgeAC 测量的绿色和生物老化之间的关联不太一致，并且取决于社区的社会经济地位。PhenoAge 加速估计没有显着关联。

讨论：

正如澳大利亚女性的 Grimage 年龄加速所表明的那样，较高的周围绿色与较慢的生物老化有关。Grimage 的三个单独组成部分的关联也很明显，但与其他生物衰老测量值不一致。需要更多的研究来证实我们的结果。https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP8793