Stress, feelings of rejection and neglect in early childhood affect telomere length – a biological marker of cell aging, according to US scientists in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.
Telomeres are structures located at the ends of chromosomes, and during cell division, when there is replication, i.e. an increase in the number of chromosomes, they shorten.
Due to the constant shortening of telomeres, their length is a biological marker of the age of cells and the condition of the whole organism. Recent studies have shown that environmental factors such as stress also influence the rate of telomere shortening in adults; and accelerated shortening of these structures has been linked to health problems – including heart disease and memory problems.
Now scientists have decided to check if environmental factors influence telomere length in young children. Stacy Drury’s group at Tulane University studied 136 children aged 6 to 30 months. It turned out that the more time children younger than five spent in nursing homes where their emotional needs could not be fully met, the shorter their telomeres became.
According to the authors of the study, it shows how important it is to provide adequate care to children and points to the need to include children who had difficult living conditions at the beginning of their lives in the research. Now, scientists plan to investigate the effect of stress in fetal life on the rate of telomere shortening (PAP).