The research, published Thursday (Oct. 8) in the journal Science, looked at a chemical code written on top of dogs' DNA. This code, called the methylome, consists of chemical tags called methyl groups, which bind to DNA's building blocks.
These groups are one type of "epigenetic marker," which collectively help to control gene activity, and their arrangement on DNA changes predictably as animals age, study co-author Blaise Mariner, a bioinformatician at Arizona State University, told Live Science. Across many studies and species, including humans, scientists have used this data to build epigenetic clocks that track animals' biological ages.
These samples revealed how the dogs' immune cells aged. These cells patrol the whole body, so "they're a really good measure of systemic aging," study co-author Noah Snyder-Mackler, a genomicist at Arizona State University, told Live Science.
"Using our biomarker, this epigenetic clock, big dogs were aging a little bit faster per year of life than small dogs," Snyder-Mackler said.
In short, the new data suggests that out-of-control jumping genes may contribute to big dogs' faster aging.
Researchers created epigenetic clocks based on data from 894 dogs. (Image credit: Josh Hawley via Getty Images)Immune cells are carefully specialized for different roles, such as preventing cancer or killing viruses. As these cells become more similar to one another, they become less able to fulfill their specialized roles, studies suggest.
"Their bodies have to make this trade-off between really rapid growth and maintenance of that," he said, "versus investment in the immune system and integrity of the organism." For now, that idea is a hypothesis, though, as the current study doesn't directly address why big dogs' epigenetic aging has come to be this way.
The team was keen to build predictive models that might help dog owners anticipate their pets' age-related health concerns, Snyder-Mackler added.
Related storiesWhat we learn about dogs from these studies may help us understand human aging, too. That's partly because dogs get some of the same diseases we do, but it's chiefly because they share humans' living spaces and environments.
"Most people love dogs," he added. "That means we can get a lot of really good data on them."
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