DNA methylation-based surrogate markers of C-reactive protein and their associations with health-related traits

Abstract

Several methylation-based surrogate markers of C-reactive protein (mCRP) have been proposed and used to assess the risk of age-related phenotypes and construct novel ageing markers. We aimed to (i) assess the variance in plasma CRP explained by several mCRP markers; (ii) compare their associations with three health-related traits: mortality, body mass index (BMI), and PCGrimAge; and (iii) assess the stability of CRP and mCRP over a decade. Blood samples were collected from 947 participants in the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study at baseline (1990–1994) and wave 2 (2003–2007). High-sensitivity CRP was measured in plasma samples. Five mCRP markers were calculated: mCRP-Ligthart, mCRP-Wiels..