Cellular Aging May be Accelerated by Physical or Emotional Trauma in Childhood

Audrey Tykra, from Brown University (Rhode Island, USA), and colleagues have determined that children who suffer physical or emotional abuse may be faced with accelerated cellular aging as adults, the consequence resulting from shortened telomeres  — the endcaps on chromosomes that are thought to govern the number of times a cell can divide. The researchers extracted DNA from blood samples of 31 adults, finding an accelerated shortening of telomeres in those who reported suffering maltreatment as children, compared to study participants who did not.  Specifically, the team observed a “[d]ampened cortisol reactivity [that] might be a consequence of childhood [emotional abuse] that is cumulative over time.”