PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Early behavior problems may be linked to 'aging' biomarkers in preschoolers

Clinical depression in mothers also correlates with telomere length in children

2015-06-16
(Press-News.org) Preschoolers with oppositional defiant behavior are more likely to have shorter telomeres, a hallmark of cellular aging, which in adults is associated with increased risk for chronic diseases and conditions like diabetes, obesity and cancer.

This phenomenon was uncovered by UCSF researchers, who also identified maternal clinical depression as an independent predictor for shortened telomeres in young children, according to a study published on Tuesday in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

Likened to the plastic tips of shoelaces, telomeres cap the ends of chromosomes and act as buffers against the loss of protein-coding DNA during cell division. While telomere shortening happens naturally with aging, mounting research indicates the process is accelerated by psychological and biological stress.

"These are the first steps in a new field aiming to understand early determinants of children's telomeres. There are not any studies yet that examine telomere length changes from birth to adulthood, so the long-term implications are unknown," said lead author Janet Wojcicki, PhD, assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Pediatrics. "In adults, however, short telomeres predict earlier onset of many diseases, and shorter telomere length likely tracks from childhood throughout life."

Wojcicki's team of researchers assessed the length of telomeres from the white blood cells of a relatively homogenous group of low-income Latino children, which included 4-year-olds (108) and 5-year-olds (92), recruited at birth from two San Francisco hospitals. (Many of the 5-year-olds were the same children tested at age 4.)

The researchers also looked at the telomeres of their mothers and screened for prenatal and postnatal maternal depression, as well as behavioral disorders in the children at ages 3, 4 and 5. These conditions included oppositional defiant behavior, characterized by hostility, irritability and refusal to comply with authority figures.

The children of mothers, who had clinical depression when their children were 3 years old, were found to have telomeres that were shorter than those of the offspring of non-depressed mothers when they were tested at ages 4 and 5. However, having major depression prenatally or during the year after birth, or milder symptoms of depression, were not related to children's telomere length.

A growing number of studies has shown that shorter telomeres in adults and children correlate to early childhood trauma, exposure to violence, maltreatment and deprivation.

"Currently there are far more questions than answers about the myriad factors that shape and promote healthy telomere maintenance in early childhood. We may be catching a small glimpse of the intergenerational transmission of health," said senior author Elissa Epel, PhD, of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry.

Among children with oppositional defiant behavior at ages 3, 4 or 5, shorter telomere length may be partially attributed to maternal depression, according to the researchers. Additionally, children with shorter telomere length were found to have mothers with shorter telomere length. This may be linked to both genetics and family stress, said Wojcicki.

While the study adds to a large volume of literature showing depression in mothers may have far-reaching ramifications on children's physical health and behavior, further research is needed to gauge its impact on children's cell aging, said the study's authors.

"These findings underscore the importance of intervening early to address behavior issues in children as well as to treat maternal depression," said Wojcicki. "While long-term studies are needed, our results suggest that maternal mental health issues and child behavioral problems can impact children at the cellular level."

INFORMATION:

Co-authors are Melvin Heyman, MD, and Deena Elwan of the UCSF Department of Pediatrics; Stephen Shiboski, PhD, of the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics; and Jue Lin, PhD, and Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, of the UCSF Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

Funding was provided by grants from the NIH, Hellman Family Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson, the NASPGHAN Foundation and the UCSF CTSI-SOS award. Co-author Jue Lin serves as a consultant and owns stock in Telomere Diagnostics. The company has not played a role in this research. The other authors have no potential conflicts of interests to declare.

About UC San Francisco UC San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It includes top-ranked graduate schools of dentistry, medicine, nursing and pharmacy, a graduate division with nationally renowned programs in basic, biomedical, translational and population sciences, as well as a preeminent biomedical research enterprise and two top-ranked hospitals, UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital San Francisco. Please visit http://www.ucsf.edu.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Attention to angry faces can predict future depression

Attention to angry faces can predict future depression
2015-06-16
Up to 80 percent of individuals with a past history of depression will get depressed again in the future. However, little is known about the specific factors that put these people at risk. New research suggests that it may be due to the things you pay attention to in your life. Researchers at Binghamton University recruited 160 women -- 60 with a past history of depression, 100 with no history of depression. They showed each woman a series of two faces, one with a neutral expression and the other with either an angry, sad or happy expression. Using eye-tracking, they ...

Strategic investments in US inland waterways should focus on maintaining locks and facilities

2015-06-16
WASHINGTON - While the U.S. inland waterways system covers a vast geographic area, its freight traffic is highly concentrated, and the system needs a sustainable and well-executed plan for maintaining system reliability and performance to ensure that its limited resources are directed where they are most essential, says a new report from the National Research Council's Transportation Research Board. More targeted operations and maintenance (O&M) investments informed by an asset management approach would prioritize locks and facilities that are most in need of maintenance ...

Businesses don't always get what they want, but try to get what they need

2015-06-16
Although most citizens tend to believe that big business owns Washington D.C., a team of researchers suggests that business may have a less dominant and more complicated relationship with government than previously thought. In a study of randomly selected federal policy decisions between 1998 and 2002, the researchers found that when citizen interest groups and other competitors opposed businesses on policies, businesses had roughly an equal chance of success as the citizen group. When the researchers examined a shorter time period, businesses were only successful about ...

New target may increase odds of successful mosquito-based malaria vaccine

2015-06-16
Researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have located a new - and likely more promising, they say - target for a potential vaccine against malaria, a mosquito-borne illness that kills as many as 750,000 people each year. The findings, published June 15 in the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, detail how the researchers created a 3-D crystal structure of the protein believed central to the transmission of the malaria parasite through mosquitoes. In looking anew at the AnAPN1 protein, an enzyme in the gut of the Anopheles mosquito, ...

Nut consumption associated with reduced risk of some types of cancer

2015-06-16
Cancer and type 2 diabetes are two of the most significant public health burdens facing the world today, and currently available data suggests their prevalence is expected to continue to increase. Nut consumption has long been hypothesized to have a role in preventing both of these diseases, but until now evidence has been inconsistent. A new systematic review and meta-analysis published in Nutrition Reviews on June 16 shows that nut consumption is, indeed, associated with a decreased risk of certain types of cancer, but not type 2 diabetes. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic ...

The presence of roseola virus in chromosomes triples the risk of angina

2015-06-16
This news release is available in French. Quebec City, June 16, 2015--People whose chromosomes contain the DNA of the roseola virus are three times more likely to suffer from angina, according to a new study by researchers from the Université Laval Faculty of Medicine, the CHU de Québec Research Center-Université Laval, and the University of Washington. Details of this finding are published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Roseola, also known as "sixth disease," is a very common childhood infection caused by ...

SAMT project: identifying best practices for evaluating sustainability in the process industry

2015-06-16
The SAMT project of the European Union will work together with leading industrial actors from the cement, oil, metal, water, waste and chemical industries and review the latest scientific developments within the field of sustainability assessment. In the first phase of the project, a total of 90 methods and tools were reviewed. In the second phase, the best performing methods and practices will be tested with real-life case studies. 'The industries can learn from each other by sharing information on their methods and tools to evaluate sustainability. The SAMT project ...

A better way to evaluate conservation policies found by Georgia State researchers

2015-06-16
Protected forested areas in Brazil, Costa Rica, Indonesia and Thailand have prevented the release of more than 1,000 million additional tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, an economic service provided by nature worth at least $5 billion, according to new research by Georgia State University economist Paul Ferraro with alumnus Merlin M. Hanauer and colleagues. In an article published this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors use this finding to show how conservation research methodology is improved by joining its two distinct ...

Vagrant bachelors could save rare bird

2015-06-16
A study conducted by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has revealed the importance of single males in small, threatened populations. Results from a study of endangered New Zealand hihi birds (Notiomystis cincta), published this week in Evolutionary Applications, showed that bachelor males who don't hold breeding territories, known as 'floaters', could help maintain genetic diversity and decrease the likelihood of inbreeding by sneakily fathering chicks. These underestimated individuals are vital to the long-term survival of small populations, such as in the hihi, ...

Slight differences -- new insights into the regulation of disease-associated genes

2015-06-16
Researchers of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) in the Helmholtz Association, in collaboration with the National Heart Research Institute Singapore (NHRIS), have gained new insights into the regulation of disease-associated genes. They used a new technique that enables them to observe gene regulation at the level of protein production. They could thus capture more individual gene regulations than with traditional methods that only capture gene expression and transcription (Nature Communications, doi: 10.1038/ncomms8200)*. When a gene is read, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Mysterious ‘Dark Dwarfs’ may be hiding at the heart of the Milky Way

Real-world data shows teclistamab can benefit many multiple myeloma patients who would have been ineligible for pivotal trial

Scientists reveal how a key inflammatory molecule triggers esophageal muscle contraction

Duration of heat waves accelerating faster than global warming

New mathematical insights into Lagrangian turbulence

Clinical trials reveal promising alternatives to high-toxicity tuberculosis drug

Artificial solar eclipses in space could shed light on Sun

Probing the cosmic Dark Ages from the far side of the Moon

UK hopes to bolster space weather forecasts with Europe's first solar storm monitor

Can one video change a teen's mindset? New study says yes - but there’s a catch

How lakes connect to groundwater critical for resilience to climate change, research finds

Youngest basaltic lunar meteorite fills nearly one billion-year gap in Moon’s volcanic history

Cal Poly Chemistry professor among three U.S. faculty to be honored for contributions to chemistry instruction

Stoichiometric crystal shows promise in quantum memory

Study sheds light on why some prostate tumors are resistant to treatment

Tree pollen reveals 150,000 years of monsoon history—and a warning for Australia’s northern rainfall

Best skin care ingredients revealed in thorough, national review

MicroRNA is awarded an Impact Factor Ranking for 2024

From COVID to cancer, new at-home test spots disease with startling accuracy

Now accepting submissions: Special Collection on Cognitive Aging

Young adult literature is not as young as it used to be

Can ChatGPT actually “see” red? New results of Google-funded study are nuanced

Turning quantum bottlenecks into breakthroughs

Cancer-fighting herpes virus shown to be an effective treatment for some advanced melanoma

Eliminating invasive rats may restore the flow of nutrients across food chain networks in Seychelles

World’s first: Lithuanian scientists’ discovery may transform OLED technology and explosives detection

Rice researchers develop superstrong, eco-friendly materials from bacteria

Itani studying translation potential of secure & efficient software updates in industrial internet of things architectures

Elucidating the source process of the 2021 south sandwich islands tsunami earthquake

Zhu studying use of big data in verification of route choice models

[Press-News.org] Early behavior problems may be linked to 'aging' biomarkers in preschoolers
Clinical depression in mothers also correlates with telomere length in children