Zahran Sammy, Snodgrass Jeffrey G, Maranon David G, Upadhyay Chakrapani, Granger Douglas A, Bailey Susan M
Department of Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1771;
Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1787;
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Mar 3;112(9):E928-36. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1411902112. Epub 2015 Feb 17.
Research links psychosocial stress to premature telomere shortening and accelerated human aging; however, this association has only been demonstrated in so-called "WEIRD" societies (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic), where stress is typically lower and life expectancies longer. By contrast, we examine stress and telomere shortening in a non-Western setting among a highly stressed population with overall lower life expectancies: poor indigenous people--the Sahariya--who were displaced (between 1998 and 2002) from their ancestral homes in a central Indian wildlife sanctuary. In this setting, we examined adult populations in two representative villages, one relocated to accommodate the introduction of Asiatic lions into the sanctuary (n = 24 individuals), and the other newly isolated in the sanctuary buffer zone after their previous neighbors were moved (n = 22). Our research strategy combined physical stress measures via the salivary analytes cortisol and α-amylase with self-assessments of psychosomatic stress, ethnographic observations, and telomere length assessment [telomere-fluorescence in situ hybridization (TEL-FISH) coupled with 3D imaging of buccal cell nuclei], providing high-resolution data amenable to multilevel statistical analysis. Consistent with expectations, we found significant associations between each of our stress measures--the two salivary analytes and the psychosomatic symptom survey--and telomere length, after adjusting for relevant behavioral, health, and demographic traits. As the first study (to our knowledge) to link stress to telomere length in a non-WEIRD population, our research strengthens the case for stress-induced telomere shortening as a pancultural biomarker of compromised health and aging.
研究表明心理社会压力与端粒过早缩短及人类加速衰老有关；然而，这种关联仅在所谓的“WEIRD”社会（西方、受过教育、工业化、富裕且民主）中得到证实，在这些社会中压力通常较低且预期寿命较长。相比之下，我们在一个非西方环境中，对压力较大且总体预期寿命较低的人群——贫困的原住民——萨哈里亚人进行了压力与端粒缩短的研究。这些萨哈里亚人在1998年至2002年期间从印度中部野生动物保护区的祖传家园被迫迁移。在这种背景下，我们研究了两个代表性村庄的成年人群，一个村庄是为了容纳亚洲狮引入保护区而搬迁的（n = 24人），另一个村庄是在其先前的邻居搬走后新隔离在保护区缓冲区的（n = 22人）。我们的研究策略将通过唾液分析物皮质醇和α-淀粉酶进行的身体压力测量与心理生理压力的自我评估、人种学观察以及端粒长度评估[端粒荧光原位杂交（TEL-FISH）结合颊细胞核的三维成像]相结合，提供了适合多层次统计分析的高分辨率数据。与预期一致，在调整了相关行为、健康和人口统计学特征后，我们发现我们的每项压力测量指标——两种唾液分析物和心理生理症状调查——与端粒长度之间都存在显著关联。据我们所知，作为第一项将压力与非“WEIRD”人群的端粒长度联系起来的研究，我们的研究进一步证明了压力诱导的端粒缩短作为健康受损和衰老的跨文化生物标志物的合理性。
