Age-related DNA methylation changes for forensic age-prediction

There is no available method of age-prediction for biological samples. The accumulating evidences indicate that DNA methylation patterns change with age. Aging resembles a developmentally regulated process that is tightly controlled by specific epigenetic modifications and age-associated methylation changes exist in human genome. In this study, three age-related methylation fragments were isolated and identified in blood of 40 donors. Age-related methylation changes with each fragment was validated and replicated in a general population sample of 65 donors over a wide age range (11–72 years). Methylation of these fragments is linearly correlated with age over a range of six decades ( r = 0.80–0.88). Using average methylation of CpG sites of three fragments, a regression model that explained 95 % of the variance in age was built and is able to predict an individual’s age with great accuracy ( R 2 = 0.93). The predicted value is highly correlated with the observed age in the sample ( r = 0.96) and has great accuracy of average 4 years difference between predicted age and true age. This study implicates that DNA methylation can be an available biological marker of age-prediction. Further measurement of relevant markers in the genome could be a tool in routine screening to predict age of forensic biological samples.