Considering Shifts in Cell Types in Bulk Tissue Samples Assessed for Epigenetic Age

Source https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2025/01/considering-shifts-in-cell-types-in-bulk-tissue-samples-assessed-for-epigenetic-age/

Epigenetic clocks assess data derived from a bulk set of cells derived from tissues. This will be a mix of cells of different types and subpopulations, and thus some portion of age-related changes might be due to shifts in the relative numbers of these cell types. This has already been explored to some degree in the context of white blood cells in a blood sample, and the better commercial epigenetic age assays are now somewhat improved for that exploration. Here researchers discuss the problem more generally, and demonstrate that separating out cell types can be expected to improve epigenetic clocks and age assessment for any tissue.

The ability to accurately quantify biological ag…