Childhood Physical and Sexual Abuse History and Leukocyte Telomere Length among Women in Middle Adulthood.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Abuse victimization in childhood is associated with a variety of age-related cardiometabolic diseases, but the mechanisms remain unknown. Telomeres, which form the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes, have been proposed as measures of biological age, and a growing body of research suggests that telomere attrition may help to explain relationships between stress and cardiometabolic degradation. We examined the association between childhood abuse victimization and leukocyte telomere length among 1,135 participants in the Nurses' Health Study II (NHSII).

Methods

The NHSII ascertained physical and sexual child abuse histories in 2001. Telomere length was measured in genomic DNA extracted from peripheral blood leukocytes collected between 1996 and 1999. The ratio

SUBMITTER: Mason SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4459951 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature