Cargando…

Number of Children and Telomere Length in Women: A Prospective, Longitudinal Evaluation

Life history theory (LHT) predicts a trade-off between reproductive effort and the pace of biological aging. Energy invested in reproduction is not available for tissue maintenance, thus having more offspring is expected to lead to accelerated senescence. Studies conducted in a variety of non-human...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Barha, Cindy K., Hanna, Courtney W., Salvante, Katrina G., Wilson, Samantha L., Robinson, Wendy P., Altman, Rachel M., Nepomnaschy, Pablo A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4701185/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26731744
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0146424
_version_ 1782408435367673856
author Barha, Cindy K.
Hanna, Courtney W.
Salvante, Katrina G.
Wilson, Samantha L.
Robinson, Wendy P.
Altman, Rachel M.
Nepomnaschy, Pablo A.
author_facet Barha, Cindy K.
Hanna, Courtney W.
Salvante, Katrina G.
Wilson, Samantha L.
Robinson, Wendy P.
Altman, Rachel M.
Nepomnaschy, Pablo A.
author_sort Barha, Cindy K.
collection PubMed
description Life history theory (LHT) predicts a trade-off between reproductive effort and the pace of biological aging. Energy invested in reproduction is not available for tissue maintenance, thus having more offspring is expected to lead to accelerated senescence. Studies conducted in a variety of non-human species are consistent with this LHT prediction. Here we investigate the relationship between the number of surviving children born to a woman and telomere length (TL, a marker of cellular aging) over 13 years in a group of 75 Kaqchikel Mayan women. Contrary to LHT’s prediction, women who had fewer children exhibited shorter TLs than those who had more children (p = 0.045) after controlling for TL at the onset of the 13-year study period. An “ultimate” explanation for this apparently protective effect of having more children may lay with human’s cooperative-breeding strategy. In a number of socio-economic and cultural contexts, having more chilren appears to be linked to an increase in social support for mothers (e.g., allomaternal care). Higher social support, has been argued to reduce the costs of further reproduction. Lower reproductive costs may make more metabolic energy available for tissue maintenance, resulting in a slower pace of cellular aging. At a “proximate” level, mechanisms involved may include the actions of the gonadal steroid estradiol, which increases dramatically during pregnancy. Estradiol is known to protect TL from the effects of oxidative stress as well as increase telomerase activity, an enzyme that maintains TL. Future research should explore the potential role of social support as well as that of estradiol and other potential biological pathways in the trade-offs between reproductive effort and the pace of cellular aging within and among human as well as in non-human populations.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-4701185
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-47011852016-01-15 Number of Children and Telomere Length in Women: A Prospective, Longitudinal Evaluation Barha, Cindy K. Hanna, Courtney W. Salvante, Katrina G. Wilson, Samantha L. Robinson, Wendy P. Altman, Rachel M. Nepomnaschy, Pablo A. PLoS One Research Article Life history theory (LHT) predicts a trade-off between reproductive effort and the pace of biological aging. Energy invested in reproduction is not available for tissue maintenance, thus having more offspring is expected to lead to accelerated senescence. Studies conducted in a variety of non-human species are consistent with this LHT prediction. Here we investigate the relationship between the number of surviving children born to a woman and telomere length (TL, a marker of cellular aging) over 13 years in a group of 75 Kaqchikel Mayan women. Contrary to LHT’s prediction, women who had fewer children exhibited shorter TLs than those who had more children (p = 0.045) after controlling for TL at the onset of the 13-year study period. An “ultimate” explanation for this apparently protective effect of having more children may lay with human’s cooperative-breeding strategy. In a number of socio-economic and cultural contexts, having more chilren appears to be linked to an increase in social support for mothers (e.g., allomaternal care). Higher social support, has been argued to reduce the costs of further reproduction. Lower reproductive costs may make more metabolic energy available for tissue maintenance, resulting in a slower pace of cellular aging. At a “proximate” level, mechanisms involved may include the actions of the gonadal steroid estradiol, which increases dramatically during pregnancy. Estradiol is known to protect TL from the effects of oxidative stress as well as increase telomerase activity, an enzyme that maintains TL. Future research should explore the potential role of social support as well as that of estradiol and other potential biological pathways in the trade-offs between reproductive effort and the pace of cellular aging within and among human as well as in non-human populations. Public Library of Science 2016-01-05 /pmc/articles/PMC4701185/ /pubmed/26731744 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0146424 Text en © 2016 Barha et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
spellingShingle Research Article
Barha, Cindy K.
Hanna, Courtney W.
Salvante, Katrina G.
Wilson, Samantha L.
Robinson, Wendy P.
Altman, Rachel M.
Nepomnaschy, Pablo A.
Number of Children and Telomere Length in Women: A Prospective, Longitudinal Evaluation
title Number of Children and Telomere Length in Women: A Prospective, Longitudinal Evaluation
title_full Number of Children and Telomere Length in Women: A Prospective, Longitudinal Evaluation
title_fullStr Number of Children and Telomere Length in Women: A Prospective, Longitudinal Evaluation
title_full_unstemmed Number of Children and Telomere Length in Women: A Prospective, Longitudinal Evaluation
title_short Number of Children and Telomere Length in Women: A Prospective, Longitudinal Evaluation
title_sort number of children and telomere length in women: a prospective, longitudinal evaluation
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4701185/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26731744
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0146424
work_keys_str_mv AT barhacindyk numberofchildrenandtelomerelengthinwomenaprospectivelongitudinalevaluation
AT hannacourtneyw numberofchildrenandtelomerelengthinwomenaprospectivelongitudinalevaluation
AT salvantekatrinag numberofchildrenandtelomerelengthinwomenaprospectivelongitudinalevaluation
AT wilsonsamanthal numberofchildrenandtelomerelengthinwomenaprospectivelongitudinalevaluation
AT robinsonwendyp numberofchildrenandtelomerelengthinwomenaprospectivelongitudinalevaluation
AT altmanrachelm numberofchildrenandtelomerelengthinwomenaprospectivelongitudinalevaluation
AT nepomnaschypabloa numberofchildrenandtelomerelengthinwomenaprospectivelongitudinalevaluation