DNA METHYLATION AGE ACCELERATION IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

Sammanfattning: Age acceleration is a measure indicating if a tissue is aging at an expected rate or not. In this study,the epigenetic clock was used to calculate age acceleration based on DNA methylation values inMultiple Sclerosis datasets. The samples were of whole blood, purified blood cell types and neuronsand included individuals with the disease, as well as controls. Various factors were explored for theireffect on the age acceleration in the context of the disease. In addition, three different normalisationoptions (no normalisation, Noob and Funnorm normalisation) were compared in order to assess theireffect on the output of the epigenetic clock algorithm. Finally, a workflow was proposed for theepigenetic clock analysis, highlighting suitable methods for processing, analysing statistically andvisualising the data.