Schneper Lisa M, Brooks-Gunn Jeanne, Notterman Daniel A, Suomi Stephen J
From the Department of Molecular Biology (Schneper, Notterman), Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey; Department of Human Development (Brooks-Gunn), Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York; and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Suomi), Bethesda, Maryland.
Psychosom Med. 2016 Nov/Dec;78(9):1066-1071. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000402.
Child-rearing environments have been associated with morbidity in adult rhesus monkeys. We examine whether such links are also seen with leukocyte telomere length.
To determine telomere length in leukocytes, blood was collected from 11 adult female monkeys aged 7 to 10 years who had been exposed to different rearing environments between birth and 7 months. Four had been reared with their mothers in typical social groups composed of other female monkeys, their offspring, and 1 to 2 adult male monkeys. The other 7 had been reared in either small groups of peers or individual cages with extensive peer interaction daily. After 7 months, all shared a common environment.
Telomere lengths were longer for those adults who had been reared with their mothers in social groups (median = 16.0 kb, interquartile range = 16.5-15.4) than for those who were reared without their mothers (median = 14.0 kb, interquartile range = 14.3-12.7; 2.2 kb/telomere difference, p < .027).
This observation adds to emerging knowledge about early adverse child-rearing conditions and their potential for influencing later morbidity. Because newborns were randomly assigned to the mother or other rearing conditions, the findings are not confounded by other conditions that co-occur with adverse child-rearing environments in humans (e.g., prenatal stress, nutrition and health as well as postnatal nutrition and negative life experiences over and above rearing conditions).
养育环境与成年恒河猴的发病率有关。我们研究这种联系是否也体现在白细胞端粒长度上。
为了确定白细胞中的端粒长度，从11只7至10岁的成年雌性猴子身上采集血液，这些猴子在出生至7个月期间处于不同的养育环境。4只猴子与母亲一起在由其他雌性猴子、它们的后代以及1至2只成年雄性猴子组成的典型社会群体中饲养。另外7只猴子要么在同龄小群体中饲养，要么在每天有大量同龄互动的单独笼子里饲养。7个月后，所有猴子共享一个共同环境。
在社会群体中与母亲一起饲养的成年猴子的端粒长度（中位数 = 16.0 kb，四分位间距 = 16.5 - 15.4）比那些没有与母亲一起饲养的猴子更长（中位数 = 14.0 kb，四分位间距 = 14.3 - 12.7；端粒差异为2.2 kb，p < 0.027））。
这一观察结果增加了关于早期不良养育条件及其影响后期发病率潜力的新知识。由于新生儿被随机分配到母亲或其他养育条件下，研究结果不受人类中与不良养育环境同时出现的其他条件（例如产前压力、营养和健康以及产后营养和养育条件之外的负面生活经历）的混淆。
