Abstract
Disruption of age-related processes seems to play a relevant role in health effects related to night shift (NS) work. We aim to verify whether NS work can influence biological age (BA), estimated through Zbieć-Piekarska’s epigenetic signature, based on methylation of five CpG sites in ELOVL2, C1orf132/MIR29B2C, TRIM59, KLF14, and FHL2. Forty-six female nurses working in NS were matched by age and length of employment with 51 female colleagues not working in NS. Each subject filled in a questionnaire (including the Effort Reward Imbalance (ERI) index to assess job stress) and gave a blood sample. Age acceleration (AA) was estimated by regressing BA on chronological age and taking the residuals. Multivariate linear regression models were applied. BA was not associated with NS. However, we did observe an increase in AA per each year in NS in subjects with overweight/obesity (β = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.05; 0.87, p = 0.03), experiencing work-related stress (β = 0.58, 95% CI: 0.10; 1.06, p = 0.018), or both (β = 0.66, 95% CI: 0.03; 1.29, p = 0.041). Although based on a small sample size, our findings suggest an increased BA only among hypersusceptible subjects and is worth further investigation, also in light of recent results suggesting a higher breast cancer risk in women with increased AA.
Highlights
Shift work, especially one involving night shifts (NS), has been associated with an increased risk of mortality and a higher incidence of cardiovascular diseases and cancer [1,2,3]
Data and blood samples were collected in a previous study [5] on 46 female nurses who had been working in NS for at least two years at the time of recruitment, matched by age and length of employment with 51 female colleagues not working night shifts (NNS)
The distribution by BMI, smoking status, Effort–Reward Imbalance (ERI), and oral contraceptive use did not differ between NS and NNS workers
Summary
Especially one involving night shifts (NS), has been associated with an increased risk of mortality and a higher incidence of cardiovascular diseases and cancer [1,2,3]. Chronological age is a well-known risk factor for chronic diseases, mortality, and functional impairments. Shift work involves a variety of physiological disruptions [4] that might entail alterations in shift workers’ biological aging. Other studies observed a high correlation between the methylation status of multiple candidate chromosomal loci and biological age [8], considering DNA methylation estimated age as a suitable predictor of biological age. Different methylome-based methods to estimate biological age have been proposed (Horvath, Hannum, and Levin “epigenetic clocks”). The Horvath clock is based on DNA
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