Are children taking years of your life?

Pregnancy can "age" cells

Anna Stavina, XX2 century

Women who have children may be biologically "older" than those who have not given birth, a new study suggests.

In the course of the work, the scientists analyzed information received from 1,556 American women who participated in the national survey in the period from 1999 to 2002. The examination included the delivery of blood samples.

The researchers studied the genetic material in the cells of the examined women, paying special attention to the length of telomeres. These are "caps" at the ends of chromosomes, protecting them from damage. Telomeres naturally shorten as the body ages, but the speed of this process varies from person to person. Studies have shown that the longer a person's telomeres are, the more division cycles his cells can go through, at least theoretically. Thus, telomeres act as markers of "biological age" or "cell age", which may differ from the "chronological age" of the person himself.

The telomeres of the study participants who noted that they had given birth to at least one child were on average 4% shorter than the telomeres of women who had never given birth. The difference did not disappear even when scientists took into account other factors that could affect the length of telomeres: they took into account how old a woman is, whether she smokes, what is her body mass index.

The results suggest that "the birth of children may be associated with a decrease in telomere length." The researchers mentioned this in the theses announced at the meeting of the American Public Health Association, held this week (Telomere length and parity among US women 20 to 44 years of age).

The design of the study does not allow us to establish the underlying cause of the discovered connection, the scientists note. But, according to one hypothesis, the birth of children increases the level of stress, and it, in turn, is associated with a decrease in the length of telomeres.

"Perhaps pregnancy, childbirth and child care can lead to chronic stress, which shortens telomeres, for example, through the inflammatory process," researcher Anna Pollack, associate professor at George Mason University, an expert in environmental and reproductive epidemiology, told the Live Science news website.. "In any case, since only one moment in women's lives was studied in the course of the work, we cannot say what happened earlier – the birth of a child or a decrease in telomere length," Pollack adds. "It is also possible that, for some unknown reason, women with shorter telomeres are more likely to have children."

The researcher also noted that additional studies are needed in which women would be monitored for a certain time, measuring the length of telomeres before, during and after pregnancy.

"It would be interesting to know how the telomere length changes during pregnancy, after the birth of a child and during the upbringing of children, and how these changes correlate with the telomere length of unborn women," Pollack explained.

"Further studies can clarify the results obtained by measuring the level of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress," said another researcher, Kelsey Rivers, a student at George Mason University, who presented the results of the work at the meeting. Rivers also added: "In other studies, it would be possible to compare the telomere length of women who gave birth to a child and women who became foster mothers. This would help to understand how telomere length is affected by the actual birth of a child, and how – the process of upbringing."

The authors plan to publish the results of the study in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru 10.11.2016