I am studying telomerase-environment interactions. Fascinating, as they say. Not news, but – poverty and lack of education kills (faster), literally. Link http://biochemistry.ucsf.edu/labs/blackburn/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12&Itemid=8
Here is the abstract:
Soc Sci Med. 2012 Jun;74(12):1948-51. Epub 2012 Mar 17.
Socioeconomic status and cell aging in children.
Needham BL, Fernandez JR, Lin J, Epel ES, Blackburn EH.
Source
Department of Sociology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1530 3rd Ave. S., HHB 460C, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA. bneedham@uab.edu
Abstract
Theory suggests that chronic stress associated with disadvantaged social status may lead to acceleration in the rate of decline in physiological functioning. The purpose of this study is to examine the association between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and leukocyte telomere length (LTL), a marker of cell aging, in children. We examined SES and LTL in 70 white and black US children aged 7-13 who participated in the community-based AMERICO (Admixture Mapping for Ethnic and Racial Insulin Complex Outcomes) study. LTL was assessed using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. Parental education was positively associated with child LTL, net of controls for sex, age, race/ethnicity, and family income. Compared to children with at least one college-educated parent, children whose parents never attended college had telomeres shorter by 1,178 base pairs, which is roughly equivalent to 6 years of additional aging. Socioeconomic disparities in cell aging are evident in early life, long before the onset of age-related diseases.
Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
PMID: 22472277 [PubMed – in process]
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