Epigenetic change is a cause of ageing (in mice)

The Information Theory of Aging (yes, I can spell ageing both ways) compares our DNA to a CD or DVD, and scratches on the disc to changes in epigenetic marks. These marks change the way genes are expressed. Is that a cause of ageing, or a correlation with age?

Catching up with news from early 2023, it seems that inducing epigenetic changes in mice causes signs of ageing:

To test whether epigenetic changes are a cause of mammalian aging, we developed systems to degrade and reset epigenetic information in cells and mice. Our data are consistent with aging in mammals being the equivalent of a software problem, the result of corrupted epigenetic information that can be restored from an existing back-up copy. 

That’s out of David Sinclair’s lab, in a paper from Yang et al. (2023) Loss of epigenetic information as a cause of mammalian aging, Cell. I first saw it mentioned in Loss of epigenetic information drives aging, in Nature Aging.

This is interesting because theories of ageing help understand why treatments (like exercise!) help stave off illness and decrepitude.