Daily Archives: 13 May 2024

Research elucidates how childhood maltreatment affects mental and physical health well into adulthood

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Childhood maltreatment can persistently influence health well into adulthood, primarily affecting an individual’s risk of poor physical health and subsequent traumatic experiences, according to recent findings.

Those who suffer from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse or neglect during childhood are at a heightened risk of developing mental health issues that can last throughout their lives. The enduring nature of this risk, even decades after the initial maltreatment, remains a complex issue not yet fully understood.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a study conducted by researchers from the University of Cambridge and Leiden University reveals that the lasting impact of childhood maltreatment on adult brains is due to an increased likelihood of obesity, inflammation, and trauma in adulthood. These factors contribute to poor health and well-being and influence brain structure and health.

The research involved analysing MRI brain scans from roughly 21,000 adults aged between 40 and 70, sourced from the UK Biobank. This data, combined with information on body mass index, CRP levels (a marker of inflammation), and personal histories of childhood maltreatment and adult trauma, provided a comprehensive view of the long-term effects of early adverse experiences.

Sofia Orellana, a PhD student at the Department of Psychiatry and Darwin College at the University of Cambridge, highlighted that the interconnectedness of childhood abuse or neglect with long-term mental and physical health problems, including adverse effects on the brain, immune, and metabolic systems, has been recognised but not fully explained. This interaction, she noted, affects critical aspects of health like heart health or the likelihood of developing diabetes.

The researchers employed statistical models to dissect these interactions further. They confirmed that childhood maltreatment increases the likelihood of higher body mass index and more frequent traumatic experiences in later life. These conditions often lead to immune system dysfunction, a consequence of chronic obesity and recurrent trauma.

Further analysis incorporating MRI data of the adult participants revealed significant changes in brain thickness and volume linked to increased body mass index, inflammation, and trauma, which were ultimately traced back to childhood maltreatment. These alterations in brain structure suggest physical damage to brain cells, impacting their functionality.

While the mechanisms at the cellular level in the brain still require further exploration, the researchers believe their findings significantly enhance the understanding of how adverse childhood experiences contribute to a lifelong increased risk of disorders affecting both brain and mental health.

Professor Ed Bullmore from the Department of Psychiatry and an Honorary Fellow at Downing College, Cambridge, expressed optimism about the implications of these findings. With a better grasp of the long-term effects of childhood maltreatment, the research could lead to the identification of biomarkers that signal increased risk of ongoing issues. This advancement could enable targeted early interventions for those most in need, potentially interrupting the cycle of ill health associated with early adverse experiences.

More information: Sofia C. Orellana et al, Childhood maltreatment influences adult brain structure through its effects on immune, metabolic, and psychosocial factors, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2304704121

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Provided by University of Cambridge

Understanding the Mechanisms of Ageing

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Ageing clocks accurately determine the biological age of humans with remarkable precision. Unlike chronological age, calculated from birth, biological age can be swayed by environmental influences like smoking or dietary habits. This precision suggests that ageing is not merely a linear process but follows a programmed pathway. Scientists David Meyer and Professor Dr Björn Schumacher from CECAD, the Cluster of Excellence Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases at the University of Cologne, have uncovered that ageing clocks primarily measure the escalation of random or stochastic cellular changes. Their findings were detailed in the ‘Aging clocks based on accumulating stochastic variation’ study published in Nature Aging.

Professor Schumacher explains, “Aging is initiated by damage to the cellular building blocks, which mostly occurs randomly. Our research aligns the precision of aging clocks with the accumulation of stochastic alterations within our cells.”

As individuals age, the regulation of cellular processes declines, leading to increasingly stochastic outcomes. This is particularly noticeable in the stochastic changes observed in DNA methylation. Methylation involves chemical modifications that affect DNA, which are the fundamental components of the genome. While these methylation processes are usually tightly controlled, random variations in these patterns emerge over a person’s lifetime. The aggregation of these variations serves as an exact indicator of age.

The researchers, Meyer and Schumacher, have also shown that the increase in stochastic variations in gene activity could serve as a basis for an aging clock. Schumacher suggests, “Theoretically, it could be possible to extend this further, allowing stochastic variations in any cellular process to predict age.” He underscores the importance of determining whether such aging clocks can accurately reflect the effectiveness of age-slowing interventions or identify detrimental factors that accelerate aging. This could open up new avenues for the development of interventions that address the fundamental causes of ageing and potentially lead to cellular rejuvenation.

In their study, using existing datasets, the scientists illustrated that smoking amplifies these random human changes while ‘anti-ageing’ interventions, such as reduced calorie consumption in mice, decrease methylation pattern variations. They also discovered that this stochastic noise is reversible through cellular reprogramming to stem cells. The scientists compared human fibroblasts from the skin reprogrammed to stem cells, which showed rejuvenation due to the reprogramming, reversing the high variation typical of aged cells back to the low stochastic noise observed in young stem cells.

Meyer and Schumacher’s insights into the loss of regulation and the increase in stochastic variations could have significant implications. They could pave the way for new interventions that address the fundamental causes of ageing and potentially lead to cellular rejuvenation. For instance, potential targets for such interventions could include repairing stochastic changes in DNA or enhancing the control of gene expression. These interventions could slow the ageing process and improve health outcomes in ageing populations.

More information: David H. Meyer et al, Aging clocks based on accumulating stochastic variation, Nature Aging. DOI: 10.1038/s43587-024-00619-x

Journal information: Nature Aging Provided by University of Cologne