The longitudinal relationship between cortisol responses to mental stress and leukocyte telomere attrition
Author
Steptoe, Andrew
Hamer, Mark
Lin, Jue
Blackburn, Elizabeth
Erusalimsky, Jorge
Date
2016-12-14Acceptance date
2016-11-22
Type
Article
Publisher
Endocrine Society
ISSN
0021-972X
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Context: Chronic psychological stress has been associated with shorter telomeres in some studies, but
the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. One possibility is that the neuroendocrine responses
associated with stress exposure are involved.
Objective: To testing the hypothesis that greater cortisol responsivity to acute stressors predicts more
rapid telomere attrition.
Design: We measured salivary cortisol responses to two challenging behavioral tasks. Leukocyte
telomere length was measured at the time of mental stress testing and 3 years later.
Participants: We studied 411 initially healthy men and women aged 54-76 years.
Main outcome measure: Leukocyte telomere length.
Results: Cortisol responses to this protocol were small, we divided participants into cortisol
responders (n = 156) and non-responders (n = 255) using a criterion (≥20%) previously shown to
predict increases in cardiovascular disease risk. There was no significant association between cortisol
responsivity and baseline telomere length, although cortisol responders tended to have somewhat
shorter telomeres (β = -0.061, standard error 0.049). But cortisol responders had shorter telomeres and
more rapid telomere attrition than non-responders on follow-up, after controlling statistically for age,
gender, socioeconomic status, smoking, time of day of stress testing and baseline telomere length (β = -
0.10, standard error 0.046, p = 0.029). The association was maintained after additional control for
cardiovascular risk factors (β = -0.11, p = 0.031). The difference between cortisol responders and nonresponders
was equivalent to approximately 2 years in aging.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that cortisol responsivity may mediate in part the relationship
between psychological stress and cellular aging.
Journal/conference proceeding
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism;
Citation
Steptoe, A., Hamer, M., Lin, J., Blackburn, E. and Erusalimsky, J. (2017) 'The longitudinal relationship between cortisol responses to mental stress and leukocyte telomere attrition', Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, 102(3), pp.962-969. doi: 10.1210/jc.2016-3035
Description
This article was published in Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism on 14 December 2016 (online), available open access at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1210/jc.2016-3035
Sponsorship
Cardiff Metropolitan University (Grant ID: Cardiff Metropolian (Internal))
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