Prenatal thyroid hormones accelerate postnatal growth and telomere shortening in wild great tits.

ABSTRACT: The early-life environment is known to affect later-life health and disease, which could be mediated by the early-life programming of telomere length, a key hallmark of ageing. According to the fetal programming of telomere biology hypothesis, variation in prenatal exposure to hormones is likely to influence telomere length. Yet, the contribution of key metabolic hormones, i.e. thyroid hormones (THs), has been largely ignored. We recently showed that in contrast to predictions, exposure to elevated prenatal THs increased postnatal telomere length in wild collared flycatchers, but the generality of such effect, the underlying proximate mechanisms and consequences for survival have not been investigated. We therefore conducted a comprehensive study evaluating the impact of THs on potential d

SUBMITTER: Hsu BY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10112984 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature