Epigenetic clocks and biological aging acceleration in early-onset hypertension

People who develop high blood pressure before turning 50 years old face increased risk of severe heart problems compared to others. Scientists developed epigenetic clocks as advanced methods to determine biological age and study aging processes. The research project employed a case-control design to examine how accelerated epigenetic aging affects premature hypertension development among Uzbek study participants. The research study enrolled 80 participants who had premature hypertension and 80 participants with matching age and sex who did not have health problems. The researchers used five epigenetic clocks to establish epigenetic age through Horvath, Hannum, PhenoAge, GrimAge, and SkinBloodClock analysis of DNA methylation data from peripheral blood leukocytes. The study found that all epigenetic clocks measured higher epigenetic age in patients compared to the control group. The biggest difference between the two groups appeared on the GrimAge clock, which assessed patients as 7.4 years older their actual age, while the control group showed no age difference. The patients who experienced systolic blood pressure measurements above 160 mmHg showed greater disease progression than those with lower blood pressure standards. The research showed that every year of GrimAge aging acceleration raised the risk of premature hypertension development by 38 percent (OR = 1.48). The study found that accelerated aging showed a strong positive relationship with C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, while people who exercised regularly had lower levels of these proteins. The research results demonstrate that early onset hypertension leads to faster epigenetic aging process which occurs at different rates depending on the patient's level of disease progression and body temperature and the time when they first showed symptoms. Epigenetic age assessment provides a new method to evaluate patient risk and disease outcome in this population.