Circulating cell-free DNA in health and disease – the relationship to health behaviours, ageing phenotypes and metabolomics

Circulating cell-free DNA (cf-DNA) has emerged as a promising biomarker of ageing, tissue damage and cellular stress. However, less is known about health behaviours, ageing phenotypes and metabolic processes that lead to elevated cf-DNA levels. We sought to analyse the relationship of circulating cf-DNA level to age, sex, smoking, physical activity, vegetable consumption, ageing phenotypes (physical functioning, the number of diseases, frailty) and an extensive panel of biomarkers including blood and urine metabolites and inflammatory markers in three human cohorts (N = 5385; 17-82 years). The relationships were assessed using correlation statistics, and linear and penalised regressions (the Lasso), also stratified by sex.

Kananen L, Hurme M, Bürkle A, Moreno-Villanueva M, Bernhardt J, Debacq-Chainiaux F, Grubeck-Loebenstein B, Malavolta M, Basso A, Piacenza F, Collino S, S. Gonos E, Sikora E, Gradinaru D, H. J. M. Jansen E, E. T. Dollé M, Salmon M, Stuetz W, Weber D, Grune T, Breusing N, Simm A, Capri M, Franceschi C, Slagboom E, Talbot D, Libert C, Raitanen J, Koskinen S, Härkänen T, Stenholm S, Ala-Korpela M, Lehtimäki T, T. Raitakari O, Ukkola O, Kähönen M, Jylhä M & Jylhävä J

GeroScience 2022 Jul 21. doi: 10.1007/s11357-022-00590-8