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The interaction between stressful life events and leukocyte telomere length is associated with PTSD

Molecular Psychiatry volume 19, pages 856–857 (2014)Cite this article

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Human telomeres are regions of tandem TTAGGG repeats at chromosomal ends that protect chromosomes from degradation, fusion and recombination.1 Over time, because of each cell division, the telomere ends become shorter.1 Thus, telomere length has been considered a cellular marker for age-related diseases and mortality.2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Shorter telomeres have also been linked to psychosocial stress7 and, in one study, to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).2 For example, women with high levels of perceived stress have shorter telomeres than women with low perceived stress.7 We hypothesized that subjects with PTSD may have shorter age-adjusted leukocyte telomere length (LTL) than age-matched non-PTSD controls. To further examine this hypothesis, we examined the relative LTL (relative T/S ratio, see Supplementary Information) in subjects with and without PTSD from the US Army Special Operations Units deployed during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Evidence of short LTL would offer a novel potential mechanism for the excess morbidity and mortality associated with PTSD. The study was conducted after appropriate ethical approval. All subjects provided written informed consent before enrollment. Participants were 650 volunteers with an average age of 29.2±7.3 (18–57) years. We used the PTSD Checklist (PCL)—a 17-item, DSM-based, self-report measure with well-established validity and reliability—for the diagnosis. Current probable PTSD was determined on the basis of endorsement of DSM-IV criteria and a PCL score ⩾50 (see Supplementary Information).8 Trauma exposure or stressful life events (SLE) were assessed with the Life Events Checklist, including an additional four items assessing childhood traumatic events (see Supplementary information).9 The relative T/S ratio was assayed using a real-time PCR method (see Supplementary Information).10

After examining the relationship of LTL to PTSD, in order to better understand the relationship of TL, SLE and age, we performed further multiple regression analyses (see Supplementary information). We found that among the younger non-PTSD control subjects those who experienced more SLEs tended to have longer LTL than those who experienced fewer SLEs (Figure 1c). In addition, a negative association between LTL and age was observed in the non-PTSD controls but not in PTSD (Figure 1d). It is possible that the age effects are not detectable among the PTSD group because they already have shorter telomeres. Therefore, any additional age effect is not seen. The data further suggest that the distribution of telomere lengths was not the same in the PTSD and non-PTSD groups (Figure 1e).

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Author notes

  1. L Zhang, X-Z Hu, D M Benedek, C S Fullerton, R D Forsten and R J Ursano: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry, Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, USA

    L Zhang, X-Z Hu, D M Benedek, C S Fullerton, J A Naifeh, X Li, H Li, K N Benevides, S Smerin, T Le, K Choi & R J Ursano

  2. United States Army Special Operations Command, Fort Bragg, NC, USA

    R D Forsten

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  1. L Zhang
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  2. X-Z Hu
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Correspondence to L Zhang.

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Zhang, L., Hu, XZ., Benedek, D. et al. The interaction between stressful life events and leukocyte telomere length is associated with PTSD. Mol Psychiatry 19, 856–857 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2013.141

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