Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Anbupalam Thalamuthu
Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Nady Braidy
Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Karen A Mather
Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, Australia
Yue Liu
Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Liliana Ciobanu
Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; The University of Adelaide, Adelaide Medical School, Discipline of Psychiatry, Adelaide, Australia
Bernhardt T Baune
The University of Adelaide, Adelaide Medical School, Discipline of Psychiatry, Adelaide, Australia; Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
David Ames
University of Melbourne Academic Unit for Psychiatry of Old Age, Kew, Australia; National Ageing Research Institute, Parkville, Australia
Russell Pickford
Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Teresa Lee
Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Neuropsychiatric Institute, Euroa Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia
Anne Poljak
Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing, School of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia; Neuropsychiatric Institute, Euroa Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia
The critical role of blood lipids in a broad range of health and disease states is well recognised but less explored is the interplay of genetics and environment within the broader blood lipidome. We examined heritability of the plasma lipidome among healthy older-aged twins (75 monozygotic/55 dizygotic pairs) enrolled in the Older Australian Twins Study (OATS) and explored corresponding gene expression and DNA methylation associations. 27/209 lipids (13.3%) detected by liquid chromatography-coupled mass spectrometry (LC-MS) were significantly heritable under the classical ACE twin model (h2 = 0.28–0.59), which included ceramides (Cer) and triglycerides (TG). Relative to non-significantly heritable TGs, heritable TGs had a greater number of associations with gene transcripts, not directly associated with lipid metabolism, but with immune function, signalling and transcriptional regulation. Genome-wide average DNA methylation (GWAM) levels accounted for variability in some non-heritable lipids. We reveal a complex interplay of genetic and environmental influences on the ageing plasma lipidome.
