Age-related changes in chemical markers of DNA packaging across human tissues and cell types

Histone-specific age prediction models demonstrated surprisingly accurate performance in assessing human aging.

• Seven key histone modifications were analyzed across different human tissues to understand their role in aging.
• Models showed resilience to experimental and artificial noise, indicating robustness in age prediction.
• Simulation experiments indicated competitive performance when compared to DNA methylation age predictors.
• Gene set enrichment analysis revealed critical developmental pathways important for age prediction.
• Unlike DNA methylation predictors, the models prioritized genes known to be involved in aging biology.
• A pan-tissue pan-histone age predictor was developed, suggesting degeneration of age-related epigenetic information across the epigenome.

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