Epigenetic age analysis of brain in major depressive disorder

A large body of evidence indicates major depressive disorder (MDD) associated with biological aging acceleration. In this study, we aim to assess epigenetic aging in different prefrontal sub-regions and cell types from postmortem tissues in MDD by using two public methylation datasets (subjects are 40 and 58 respectively). Results showed that brain epigenetic age has a strong correlation with chronological age in both datasets. However, there are no significant differences in epigenetic aging acceleration between MDD and controls in all prefrontal sub-regions and cell types. In conclusion, this study provides evidence against epigenetic aging acceleration in the brain in MDD.