PROVIDENCE, R.I., March 20 (UPI) -- Children who suffer physical or emotional abuse may face accelerated aging as adults, U.S. researchers said.
Audrey Tyrka and her colleagues from Butler Hospital and Brown University in Providence, R.I., examined the DNA of healthy adults who had a history of childhood maltreatment.
The study, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, found they had shorter telomeres -- region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration -- than those who did not experience child maltreatment.
Telomere length is a measure of biological aging because telomeres shorten progressively with each cell division, Tyrka said.
Shorter telomere lengths have been linked to a variety of aging-related medical conditions including cardiovascular disease and cancer.
The findings "suggest the possibility that early developmental experiences may have profound effects on biology that can influence cellular mechanisms at a very basic level and even lead to accelerated aging," Tyrka said.
