Nearly half of American adults have high blood pressure. It’s considered an inevitable part of getting older, but UNLV researchers are working to uncover what might trigger these changes in an effort to mitigate them.
In a study published in May in the journal Clinical Epigenetics, a team of scientists used long-term health data from roughly 1,000 participants to analyze the relationship between DNA methylation and blood pressure as we age.
Methylation occurs as chemicals are added to DNA through lifestyle, environment, and aging. While methylation doesn’t change the DNA sequence itself — and levels can shift back and forth over time — it can impact how genes work and can lead to conditions like high blood pressure.
“I like thinking of it as a dimmer switch for your DNA, dialing something up or down depending on the level of methylation,” said Edwin Oh, study co-author and professor and director of the Center for Water Intelligence and Community Health at UNLV.
Our DNA is fixed, half of it inherited from each of our parents. In the dimmer switch scenario your DNA is the inherited wiring in the house. Methylation is the dimmer switch over the top of that wiring. Nothing is rewired, but switches can be turned up or dialed down at varying levels.
Though other studies have found an association between methylation and blood pressure changes, trends haven’t yet been evaluated across the lifespan. Using measurements taken across decades of participants’ lives, the UNLV-led team created an applied mathematical model that allows them to track how the methylation-blood pressure relationship changes with age.
The model was developed by Gang Xu, research assistant professor in the UNLV College of Sciences and lead author on the paper. Xu and colleagues tracked how the methylation-blood pressure relationship changes with age, and found that the direction of this relationship can reverse with age.
Methylation linked to higher blood pressure in participants as younger adults was correlated with lower blood pressure as those participants aged. The team hasn’t yet proven cause and effect, but their work validates the importance of additional longitudinal studies to add to the body of research evaluating this relationship over time.
“Aging is not static, and neither are the biological signals that shape our health,” Xu said. “Our model gives researchers a way to track how the relationship between DNA methylation and blood pressure changes over time. That could help us better understand cardiovascular risk.”
Xu says the same modeling approach could be applied to future studies of other complex diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, where biological risk may also change across adulthood.
The study highlights the possibilities of precision medicine, particularly how assessing individual changes in methylation of DNA over time can help us to address their effects on various biological processes.
“If we’re feeling different over time at age 30, age 40, age 50, but our genome hasn’t changed,” Oh said. “What is changing that makes us feel that way? If we can better understand these changes, it could help us understand the mechanisms of aging overall, and how some of these age-onset diseases happen.”
Publication Details
“Age-varying DNA methylation patterns associated with blood pressure in mid-to-late adulthood” was published May 6, 2026 in Clinical Epigenetics with collaboration between UNLV researchers Gang Xu, Xiaowei Zhuang, Amei Amei, Edwin Oh, and Yale University researcher Zuoheng Wang. Xu completed his Ph.D. at UNLV before completing postdoctoral work at Yale University and returning to UNLV as a research assistant professor.
