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Young adults whose mothers experienced psychological trauma duringtheir pregnancies show signs of accelerated aging, a UC Irvine-ledstudy found. The researchers discovered that this prenatal exposure to stress affected the development of chromosome regions that control cellaging processes. The study results, which appear online this weekin the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , point to the importance of maternal health and well-being duringpregnancy. "Our previous research on prenatal stress exposure has shown itseffects on long-term metabolic, immune, endocrine and cognitivefunction," said the paper's lead author, Dr. Pathik D. Wadhwa, UCIprofessor of psychiatry & human behavior, obstetrics & gynecology,pediatrics, and epidemiology. "But this is the first to show theimpact of prenatal stress on cell aging in humans, and it shedslight on an important biological pathway underlying thedevelopmental origins of adult disease risk." Study participants were healthy 25-year-old women and men born tomothers who had, during pregnancy, experienced psychosocial stressin the form of major, traumatic life events, such as the death orsudden severe illness of an immediate family member. Blood testsrevealed that subjects' white blood cells had aged an average ofthree and a half more years - five among women - than those ofindividuals whose mothers had uneventful pregnancies. This hastened aging was evidenced by the shortened length oftelomeres, repetitive stretches of DNA-protein complexes that capand protect the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres maintain chromosomalstability and control the processes that underlie cellular aging byfunctioning as a "clock" that regulates how many times a cell candivide. The shorter the telomere strands, the faster the cell ages. The telomere maintenance system plays an important role in humandisease and longevity, and scientists now know that telomere lengthis correlated to the risk of disease and premature mortality inhumans. Truncated telomeres - such as those found in the whiteblood cells of study participants - can, for example, be aprecursor to diabetes , cancer and coronary heart disease . "These results indicate that stress exposure in intrauterine lifeis a significant predictor of adult telomere length - even afteraccounting for other established prenatal and postnatal influenceson telomere length," said Sonja Entringer, UCI assistant professorof pediatrics and first author on the paper. A rapidly emerging body of human and animal research indicates thatintrauterine conditions play an important role not only in allaspects of fetal development and health across gestation and birth,but also in a wide range of physical and mental health outcomes over an individual's entire lifespan. Notes: Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Elissa S. Epel and Jue Lin of UC SanFrancisco and German researchers Robert Kumsta, Dirk H. Hellhammerand Stefan Wust contributed to the study, which was supported bythe National Institutes of Health and the Barney & Barbro Fund.Blackburn, an internationally renowned expert in telomere biology,shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for herseminal discoveries in the field. Additional References Citations. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as LED Spot Lamps Manufacturer , Dimmable LED Light Bulbs, and more. For more , please visit LED Tube Light Fixtures today!
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