Facial wrinkling is a prominent sign of aging, yet individuals exhibit unique trajectories of biological aging, contributing to the variability in facial appearance. Here, we present a pioneering stud Show more
Facial wrinkling is a prominent sign of aging, yet individuals exhibit unique trajectories of biological aging, contributing to the variability in facial appearance. Here, we present a pioneering study exploring the association between lifestyle choices, DNA methylation, and SNP genotypes with a range of facial skin aging phenotypes. The study demonstrated that age-related facial skin phenotypes are influenced by multiple environmental stressors. Epigenome-wide association analyses identified differentially methylated cytosines mapped to 151 loci, including novel genes associated with facial wrinkles, such as EDAR (cg02925966, p = 4.96 × 10 Show less
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue disease characterized by endothelial cell damage, perivascular inflammation and tissue hypoxia. Angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4) has been demonstra Show more
Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a connective tissue disease characterized by endothelial cell damage, perivascular inflammation and tissue hypoxia. Angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4) has been demonstrated to affect vascular permeability, inflammation and oxidative stress, thus may contribute to SSc pathogenesis. The aim of the study was to evaluate serum ANGPTL4 in systemic sclerosis and correlate it with disease subtype (localized and diffuse, lcSSc and dcSSc respectively), disease duration, skin fibrosis and internal organ involvement. Twenty-two patients with systemic sclerosis (15 lcSSc, 7 dcSSc) and thirteen healthy controls were analyzed. Clinical and laboratory data were collected including modified Rodnan Skin Score (mRSS), Raynaud's phenomenon, disease duration, digital pitting scars, oesophageal involvement and interstitial lung disease. ANGPTL4 sera concentrations were measured by ELISA. Patients with systemic sclerosis had lower ANGPTL4 serum levers in comparison to healthy controls, however without statistical significance (160.15 ± 117.53 vs. 127.15 ± 83.58 ng/ml; p=0.64). No association between ANGPTL4 levels and disease subtype, disease duration, severity of skin involvement (mRSS) and Raynaud's phenomenon onset was found. This is the first study evaluating the serum concentration of ANGPTL4 in patients with systemic sclerosis. This study contributes to still undetermined role of ANGPTL4 in the development or progression of systemic sclerosis. Therefore the role of ANGPTL4 in hypoxia-related diseases such as systemic sclerosis needs further research. Show less
Forced vital capacity (FVC), a spirometric measure of pulmonary function, reflects lung volume and is used to diagnose and monitor lung diseases. We performed genome-wide association study meta-analys Show more
Forced vital capacity (FVC), a spirometric measure of pulmonary function, reflects lung volume and is used to diagnose and monitor lung diseases. We performed genome-wide association study meta-analysis of FVC in 52,253 individuals from 26 studies and followed up the top associations in 32,917 additional individuals of European ancestry. We found six new regions associated at genome-wide significance (P < 5 × 10(-8)) with FVC in or near EFEMP1, BMP6, MIR129-2-HSD17B12, PRDM11, WWOX and KCNJ2. Two loci previously associated with spirometric measures (GSTCD and PTCH1) were related to FVC. Newly implicated regions were followed up in samples from African-American, Korean, Chinese and Hispanic individuals. We detected transcripts for all six newly implicated genes in human lung tissue. The new loci may inform mechanisms involved in lung development and the pathogenesis of restrictive lung disease. Show less