DNA-estimated ageing markers are associated with COPD

It has been postulated that abnormal ageing is involved in the disease pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). While most studies assess differences in senescence and known ageing genes, we recently developed a new approach to measure ageing markers at DNA level using whole genome sequencing (WGS). In this study, we aim to test if these ageing markers are associated with COPD. WGS was performed on 36 non-smoking subjects with COPD (FEV1/FVC We found a significant shorter telomere length, more loss of X-chromosome and more loss of mitochondrial DNA in the COPD subjects, while the AluY retrotransposition activity was higher in the COPD subjects compared to the healthy controls. Interestingly, these results are in line with the observations in ageing hallmarks in the general population. Although T-cell proportion is expected to decrease with ageing, we did not find any differences for this marker between COPD subjects and healthy controls. Based on the estimation of ageing markers at DNA level, our study shows differences in ageing in COPD subjects compared to healthy controls. Results of our new approach confirm previous hypotheses that ageing might indeed be involved in COPD.