Salivary DNA methylation and pubertal development in adolescents.
Level 3 - non-randomized controlled study
Observational cohort epigenome-wide association study with validation across three cohorts
PubMed 41093898 · doi:10.1038/s41598-025-19588-1
What was done
Conducted sex-specific epigenome-wide association analyses of salivary DNA methylation in ~3,500 adolescents to identify sites associated with pubertal age, pace of pubertal development, and onset of early puberty by age 9. The authors compared findings with prior genomic, transcriptomic, and pan-mammalian epigenetic aging datasets and tested a novel DNA methylation biomarker of pubertal age against age at menarche across three adolescent cohorts.
What was found
Identified 373 DNA methylation sites significantly associated with pubertal age, pace of development, or early puberty onset. The derived salivary DNA methylation biomarker was consistently associated with earlier age at menarche across three cohorts. Trait enrichment analyses implicated child maltreatment and toxicant exposures. Specific numerical effect sizes, test statistics, and p-values were not reported in the abstract.
Why it matters
Demonstrates that non-invasive saliva sampling can capture epigenetic marks of pubertal maturation and timing in adolescents. This provides a potential molecular tool linking pubertal tempo to environmental exposures and biological aging mechanisms.
Limits
The abstract reports no numerical effect sizes, variance explained, or confidence intervals. Epigenome-wide associations in observational cohorts cannot establish causality. Details on cohort demographics, ancestry distribution, and control for cell-type heterogeneity or other confounders are not provided in the abstract.
Cited by
- supports An epigenetic clock trained on physical pubertal maturation correlates with chronological aging clocks and relates to more rapid aging later in life.