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Published online on December 1, 2004, 10.1073/pnas.0407162101
PNAS | December 7, 2004 | vol. 101 | no. 49 | 17312-17315
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From the Cover
PSYCHOLOGY
Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress

Elissa S. Epel *, {dagger}, Elizabeth H. Blackburn {ddagger}, Jue Lin {ddagger}, Firdaus S. Dhabhar §, Nancy E. Adler *, Jason D. Morrow ¶, and Richard M. Cawthon ||

*Department of Psychiatry, University of California, 3333 California Street, Suite 465, San Francisco, CA 94143; {ddagger}Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143; §Department of Oral Biology, College of Dentistry, and Department of Molecular Virology, Immunology, and Medical Genetics, College of Medicine, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210; Department of Medicine and Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN 37232; and ||Department of Human Genetics, University of Utah, 15 North 2030 E Street, Room 2100, Salt Lake City, UT 84112

Contributed by Elizabeth H. Blackburn, September 28, 2004

Numerous studies demonstrate links between chronic stress and indices of poor health, including risk factors for cardiovascular disease and poorer immune function. Nevertheless, the exact mechanisms of how stress gets "under the skin" remain elusive. We investigated the hypothesis that stress impacts health by modulating the rate of cellular aging. Here we provide evidence that psychological stress— both perceived stress and chronicity of stress—is significantly associated with higher oxidative stress, lower telomerase activity, and shorter telomere length, which are known determinants of cell senescence and longevity, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy premenopausal women. Women with the highest levels of perceived stress have telomeres shorter on average by the equivalent of at least one decade of additional aging compared to low stress women. These findings have implications for understanding how, at the cellular level, stress may promote earlier onset of age-related diseases.

psychological stress | telomere length | telomerase | oxidative stress

Freely available online through the PNAS open access option.

Abbreviations: PBMC, peripheral blood mononuclear cell; BMI, body-mass index; T/S, telomere repeat copy number/single-copy gene copy number.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: elissa{at}itsa.ucsf.edu.

© 2004 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA


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