Department of Women's and Children's Health, Science for Life Laboratory, Uppsala University, Box 593, Uppsala, 751 24, Sweden.
Department of Women's and Children's Health, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
BMC Psychiatry. 2024 Oct 8;24(1):661. doi: 10.1186/s12888-024-06115-1.
As a biological marker for cellular senescence, telomere length (TL) has been linked to a variety of psychiatric disorders and adverse childhood experiences (ACE), though only preliminarily to peripartum depression (PPD). The present study sought to examine the association between TL and PPD, assessing the moderating role of ACE and genetic polymorphic variations related with the telomere machinery.
Adversity was self-reported, likewise were depressive symptoms evaluated at pregnancy week 17 and 32, as well as six-weeks and six-months postpartum. TL was assessed by use of qPCR in blood samples collected during delivery from females with antenatal depression resolving postpartum, females with depression persisting to postpartum, and healthy controls. Twenty haplotype-tagging Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in the Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase (TERT) and three in the Telomerase RNA Component (TERC) genes were genotyped.
TL was negatively correlated with severity of PPD symptoms at pregnancy week 32 and postpartum week 6. PPD was associated with shorter TL. Lastly, ACE, but not the TERT/TERC genotype, moderated the TL-trajectory association; with increasing ACE, individuals with persistent PPD symptoms had shorter TL, whereas the opposite pattern (longer TL) was observed in the controls.
The findings contribute to further understanding of PPD underpinnings, suggesting a negative relationship with TL.
端粒长度（TL）作为细胞衰老的生物标志物，与多种精神疾病和不良童年经历（ACE）有关，但仅初步与围产期抑郁症（PPD）有关。本研究旨在探讨 TL 与 PPD 之间的关联，评估 ACE 和与端粒机制相关的遗传多态性变异的调节作用。
逆境是自我报告的，同样，在怀孕第 17 周和第 32 周以及产后 6 周和 6 个月评估抑郁症状。在患有产前抑郁症并在产后缓解、抑郁症持续到产后的女性分娩期间采集血液样本，使用 qPCR 评估 TL。在端粒酶逆转录酶（TERT）基因中鉴定了 20 个单核苷酸多态性（SNP）和 3 个端粒酶 RNA 成分（TERC）基因的单倍型标记。
TL 与妊娠第 32 周和产后第 6 周 PPD 症状的严重程度呈负相关。PPD 与 TL 缩短有关。最后，ACE 而不是 TERT/TERC 基因型调节 TL 轨迹关联；随着 ACE 的增加，持续性 PPD 症状的个体 TL 缩短，而对照组则出现相反的模式（TL 延长）。
这些发现有助于进一步了解 PPD 的基础，表明 TL 呈负相关。
