1. The protein cargo of extracellular vesicles correlates with the epigenetic aging clock of exercise sensitive DNAmFitAge.
- Author
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György B, Szatmári R, Ditrói T, Torma F, Pálóczi K, Balbisi M, Visnovitz T, Koltai E, Nagy P, Buzás EI, Horvath S, and Radák Z
- Subjects
- Humans, Middle Aged, Male, Female, Aged, Extracellular Vesicles metabolism, Exercise physiology, Aging genetics, Aging metabolism, Epigenesis, Genetic, DNA Methylation
- Abstract
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are implicated in inter-organ communication, which becomes particularly relevant during aging and exercise. DNA methylation-based aging clocks reflect lifestyle and environmental factors, while regular exercise is known to induce adaptive responses, including epigenetic adaptations. Twenty individuals with High-fitness (aged 57.7 ± 9.8 years) and twenty Medium-Low-fitness (aged 57.5 ± 9.7 years) subjects provided blood samples. EVs were isolated from the samples using a size exclusion chromatography (SEC)-based method, and their protein content was analyzed by mass spectrometry (MS). Acceleration of the biological age estimator DNAmFitAge (AgeAccelFit) was associated with the protein cargo of EVs, whereas PhenoAge and GrimAge acceleration did not show a significant relationship. This finding suggests that the epigenetic aging-modulating role of exercise may involve inter-organ communication via EVs. Set Enrichment Analysis was performed to identify enriched Gene Ontology (GO) terms for sets of proteins that were either correlated with AgeAccelFit or detected exclusively in individuals with high levels of aerobic fitness. The protein cargo of EVs further suggests that inter-organ communication influences inflammation, the immune system, cellular repair, adhesion, metabolism and coagulation. Our findings help to understand the preventive role of exercise, which could be mediated in part by EVs., Competing Interests: Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. Ethical approval: Ethical approval was obtained from the Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities (EMMI) in agreement with the Hungarian Scientific and Research Ethics Committee (ETT TUKEB, 25167–6/2019 EUIG). Consent to participate: Ethical approval was obtained from the Hungarian Ministry of Human Capacities (EMMI) in agreement with the Hungarian Scientific and Research Ethics Committee (ETT TUKEB, 25167–6/2019 EUIG)., (© 2025. The Author(s).)
- Published
- 2025
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