"Cancer and aging are accompanied by stereotyped changes to the epigenetic landscape, including progressive loss of DNA methylation over gene-poor genomic regions (1, 2). Global hypomethylation arises in cells that have undergone many divisions, likely owing to imperfect maintenance. Evidence suggests that global hypomethylation represents a “mitotic clock” that counts divisions in somatic cells and functions to restrain aging cells and limit malignant progression."
@cyrilpedia An interesting question in this context is the possibility of (organ'-specific) heterogeneity of this "ticking clock"...and whether there is specific factors that induce "overclocking"... #epigenetics #Heterogeneity #tissue #TissueRepair #genomic