Abstract
Objectives: Telomeres are repetitive DNA at chromosomes ends that shorten with age due to cellular replication and oxidative stress. As telomeres shorten, this can eventually place limits on cell replication and contribute to senescence. Infections are common during early development and activate cellular immune responses that involve clonal expansion and oxidative stress. As such, a high infectious disease burden might shorten blood telomere length (BTL) and accelerate the pace of immune senescence. Methods: To test this, BTL measured in young adults (21.7 ± 0.3 years old) from the Philippines (N = 1,759) were linked to prospectively collected early life data on infectious burden. Results: As predicted, increased early life diarrheal prevalence was associated with shorter adult BTL. The association was most marked for infections experienced from 6 to 12 months, which corresponds with weaning and maximal diarrheal burden. A standard deviation increase in infections at 6–12 m predicts a 45 bp decrease in BTL, equivalent to 3.3 years of adult telomeric aging in this population. Contrary to expectations, breastfeeding duration was not associated with BTL, nor did effects vary by sex. Conclusions: These findings show that infancy diarrheal disease predicts a marker of cellular aging in adult immune cells. These findings suggest that early life infectious burden may influence late life health, or alternatively, that short TL in early life increases infectious disease susceptibility.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | e22962 |
| Journal | American Journal of Human Biology |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 1 2017 |
Funding
We thank Karen Mohlke for sharing aliquots of extracted DNA and genetic information. Amy Klegarth, Hilary Bethancourt, Dan Grunspan, Erin Masterson, Tiffany Pan, Tim Moore and Robert Tennyson provided valuable feedback on earlier iterations of this manuscript. We especially thank the many researchers at the USC-Office of Population Studies Foundation, Inc., University of San Carlos, Cebu, Philippines, for their central role in study design and data collection, and the Filipino participants, who provided their time and samples for this study. DTAE carried out the telomere length analyses, conducted the data analysis, participated in the design of the study and drafted the manuscript; JBB had a key role in collection of field data and contributed to the manuscript; MGH participated in the design of the study, oversaw lab work, and contributed to the manuscript. CWK participated in the design of the study, oversaw collection of field data and contributed to the manuscript.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Anthropology
- Genetics
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Anatomy