Stress and telomere shortening among central Indian conservation refugees

Abstract

Research links psychosocial stress to premature telomere shortening and accelerated human aging; however, this association has only been demonstrated in so-called "WEIRD" societies (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic), where stress is typically lower and life expectancies longer. By contrast, we examine stress and telomere shortening in a non-Western setting among a highly stressed population with overall lower life expectancies: poor indigenous people-the Sahariya-who were displaced (between 1998 and 2002) from their ancestral homes in a central Indian wildlife sanctuary. In this setting, we examined adult populations in two representative villages, one relocated to accommodate the introduction of Asiatic lions into the sanctuary (n = 24 individuals), and the other newly isolated in the sanctuary buffer zone after their previous neighbors were moved (n = 22). Our research strategy combined physical stress measures via the salivary analytes cortisol and α-amylase with self-assessments of psychosomatic stress, ethnographic observations, and telomere length assessment [telomere-fluorescence in situ hybridization (TEL-FISH) coupled with 3D imaging of buccal cell nuclei], providing high-resolution data amenable to multilevel statistical analysis. Consistent with expectations, we found significant associations between each of our stress measures-the two salivary analytes and the psychosomatic symptom survey-and telomere length, after adjusting for relevant behavioral, health, and demographic traits. As the first study (to our knowledge) to link stress to telomere length in a non-WEIRD population, our research strengthens the case for stress-induced telomere shortening as a pancultural biomarker of compromised health and aging.telomeres | stress | India | indigenous peoples | human displacement P sychosocial stress is associated with elevated risk for a range of human diseases and curtailment of human life expectancy (1-16). Telomeres-repetitive and stabilizing features of chromosomal termini that cap and protect them-have also been shown to be associated with aging and disease (17)(18)(19). Telomere length erodes normally with cell division and generally with aging, triggering cellular senescence once telomere length eclipses a threshold, contributing to tissue degeneration and organ decline with longevity (20-25). Given evidence that stress can elevate the risk of human mortality, and that premature telomere shortening can serve as a proxy for increased risk of disease and mortality, it is reasonable to posit that stress is also associated with telomere shortening (23,26,27). Indeed, research provides evidence of telomere shortening in a range of stress-inducing life situations, including among primary caregivers of chronically ill children and Alzheimer's patients (28, 29), children spending more time in orphanages or experiencing other forms of neglect and adversity (30-32), women suffering from intimate partner violence (33), patients suffering from stress-related mood disorders (34, 35), and...

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