Abstract
Childhood adversity (CA) may alter reactivity to stress throughout life, increasing risk for psychiatric and medical morbidity, yet long-term correlates of milder CA levels among high functioning healthy adolescents are less studied. The current study examined the prevalence and impact of CA exposure among a cohort of healthy motivated elite parachute unit volunteers, prospectively assessed at rest and at the height of an intensive combat-simulation exposure. We found significantly reduced gene expression levels in resting mononuclear cell nuclear receptor, subfamily 3, member 1 (NR3C1), and its transactivator spindle and kinetochore-associated protein 2 (SKA2), that predict blunted cortisol reactivity to combat-simulation stress among CA exposed adolescents. Long-term alterations in endocrine immune indices, subjective distress, and executive functions persist among healthy high functioning adolescents following milder CA exposure, and may promote resilience or vulnerability to later real-life combat exposure.
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Acknowledgements
The study was supported in part by the Herman-Danna Foundation, the Milgrome Family Foundation, and the NATO SPS Program. The authors wish to thank Amalia Tabib and Daniel Neiman for their technical assistance and advice with the methylation analyses.
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Kalla, C., Goltser-Dubner, T., Pevzner, D. et al. Resting mononuclear cell NR3C1 and SKA2 expression levels predict blunted cortisol reactivity to combat training stress among elite army cadets exposed to childhood adversity. Mol Psychiatry 26, 6680–6687 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01107-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-021-01107-z
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