The relation of telomere length at midlife to subsequent 20‐year depression trajectories among women

Abstract

Background: Telomeres cap and protect DNA but shorten with each somatic cell division. Aging and environmental and lifestyle factors contribute to the speed of telomere attrition. Current evidence suggests a link between relative telomere length (RTL) and depression but the directionality of the relationship remains unclear. We prospectively examined associations between RTL and subsequent depressive symptom trajectories.Methods: Among 8,801 women of the Nurses' Health Study, depressive symptoms were measured every 4 years from 1992 to 2012; group-based trajectories of symptoms were identified using latent class growth-curve analysis. Multinomial logistic models were used to relate midlife RTLs to the probabilities of assignment to subsequent depressive symptom trajectory groups.Results: We identified four depressive symptom trajectory groups: minimal depressive symptoms (62%), worsening depressive symptoms (14%), improving depressive symptoms (19%), and persistent-severe depressive symptoms (5%).Longer midlife RTLs were related to significantly lower odds of being in the worsening symptoms trajectory versus minimal trajectory but not to other trajectories. In comparison with being in the minimal symptoms group, the multivariable-adjusted odds ratio of being in the worsening depressive symptoms group was 0.78 (95% confidence interval, 0.62-0.97; p = 0.02), for every standard deviation increase in baseline RTL. Conclusions:In this large prospective study of generally healthy women, longer telomeres at midlife were associated with significantly lower risk of a subsequent trajectory of worsening mood symptoms over 20 years. The results raise the possibility of telomere shortening as a novel contributing factor to late-life depression. K E Y W O R D S depression, depressive symptoms, late-life, telomeres, trajectories Depress Anxiety. 2019;36:565-575. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/da

Shift-&-Persist and discrimination predicting depression across the life course: An accelerated longitudinal design using MIDUSI-III

“…Finally, and most relevant to our current study that also uses the MIDUS sample, Blöchl and Nestler (2019) used second-order latent growth curve modeling on Waves I through III of the MIDUS data (see Isiordia & Ferrer, 2018 for explanation of this model) to examine how vascular risk factors (e.g., hypertension, diabetes, and smoking) impacted the linear trajectory of depression across the three study waves. Largely similar to past studies (Charles et al, 2001;Gillis et al, 2019;Walsemann, Gee, & Geronimus, 2009) the authors also found evidence for a slightly decreasing unconditional linear slope of depressive symptoms. 1 To summarize across these findings from varying samples and using varying modeling techniques, these studies point towards meaningful differences in the intra-individual trajectory of depression during and beyond the midlife period as a function of age.…”

Testing three hypotheses about effects of sensitive–insensitive parenting on telomeres.

“…Due to ethical considerations associated with obtaining repeated blood samples from children, most studies have used saliva or buccal swabs instead of the peripheral blood cells. Notably, prior research indicates telomere length to be modestly to highly correlated across somatic tissues (Daniali et al, 2013;Friedrich, Griese, Schwab, Fritz, Thon, & Klotz, 2000;Gadalla, Cawthon, Giri, Alter, & Savage, 2010;Lin, Smith, Esteves, & Drury, 2019), and that stress-induced changes in telomere length can be detected in buccal cell DNA (Essex, Boyce, Hertzman, Lam, Armstrong, Neumann, & Kobor, 2013;Non et al, 2016;Shalev et al, 2013). DNA was extracted using QIAamp DNA Mini Kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany), and quantified using Quant-iT PicoGreen reagent (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Qiagen).…”

“…Nevertheless, it needs to be appreciated that even though the exact mechanisms leading from stress to shorter buccal telomere length remain unknown, stress can cause system-wide changes that can permeate to buccal mucosa cells, including increased cortisol, proinflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress (Borthakur et al, 2008;Houtepen et al, 2016;Kroenke et al, 2011). Apparently, stress-induced telomere length alterations are not restricted to the brain or blood; they can be detected in buccal cell DNA as well (Essex et al, 2013;Non et al, 2016;Shalev et al, 2013).…”

Biological embedding of maternal postpartum depressive symptoms: The potential role of cortisol and telomere length

“…Short telomere length, therefore, has been associated with compromised adult all-cause mortality (Wang, Zhan, Pedersen, Fang, & Hägg, 2018) and morbidity, including physical disorders, such as gastric cancer and diabetes, as well as psychological disorders, such as depression (e.g. Desai et al, 2018;D'Mello et al, 2015;Gillis et al, 2019;Lin, Epel, & Blackburn, 2012;Ridout, Ridout, Price, Sen, & Tyrka, 2016;Smith et al, 2019).…”