Extract
Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) leads to activation and propagation of oxidative stress and systemic inflammatory pathways, essentially mimicking accelerated biological aging (senescence) [1–3]. Biological aging is a complex and time-dependent deterioration of physiological processes with attendant morbidity and mortality. During aging there is continuous and accelerated accumulation of epigenetic changes manifesting either systemically or restricted to a specific tissue/cell type. Epigenetic Clocks or DNA Methylation Clocks, have emerged as valuable biological age prediction tools [4]. By regressing DNA methylation age on chronological age, epigenetic clocks can determine whether biological age acceleration occurs in certain diseases or in response to environmental factors [4]. Using this approach, age acceleration measurements in blood were abnormally high in the context of common conditions such as obesity, neurological diseases, and cigarette smoking [5].
Footnotes
This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the European Respiratory Journal. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJ online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.
Conflicts of interest: Rene Cortese has nothing to disclose.
Conflicts of interest: David Sanz-Rubio has nothing to disclose.
Conflicts of interest: Leila Kheirandish-Gozal has nothing to disclose.
Conflicts of interest: José Maria Marin has nothing to disclose.
- Received September 9, 2021.
- Accepted January 5, 2022.
- Copyright ©The authors 2022. For reproduction rights and permissions contact permissions{at}ersnet.org