Mothers’ stress may lead to preterm births, faster aging in children

Why do some people age faster than others? One potential answer, a new UCLA-led study indicates, is that a mother's stress prior to giving birth may accelerate her child's biological aging. The researchers found evidence that maternal stress adversely affects the length of a baby's telomeres — the small pieces of DNA at the ends of chromosomes that act as protective caps, like the plastic tips on shoelaces. Shortened telomeres have been linked to a higher risk of cancers, cardiovascular and other diseases, and earlier death. The findings are reported this month in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology. "Research on aging is beginning to identify some factors that might put a person on an accelerated aging path, potentially leading to diseases of aging such as metabolic disorder and cardiovascular disease much earlier in life than would be expected,' said the study's lead author, Judith Carroll , an associate professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology , part of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. "What our research tells us is that we may have early environmental and maternal factors influencing where a person starts in life, which may set them on course to age faster.' While several studies have reported that telomere length is shorter in newborns whose mothers reported high stress during either the first or third trimester of pregnancy, the new study tracked maternal stress prior to conception and followed up in the second and third trimesters.