News Brief by Ming Lin
This past week, a team of researchers in California and the Netherlands discovered a link between depression and aging, particularly in cells. They have found that in a sample of white blood cells from more than 2,400 individuals, those who were clinically depressed had shorter telomeres in their cells. Telomeres are strands of DNA at the tips of chromosomes that shorten as cells divide over time, and are often associated with other age-related diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Individuals involved in the study who had clinical depression for two years aged seven to ten years compared to individuals who were not depressed. These individuals also had the shortest telomeres. This observation may suggest that depression may cause faster aging, but currently this is just a found correlation and other factors may also affect telomere shortening.
Reference:
Morin, M. (2013, November 12). Clinical depression may accelerate aging process, study says. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 22, 2013, from http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-clinical-depression-accelerates-aging-process-researchers-say-20131112,0,7735881.story#axzz2kZ8S2SXo
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