Leukocyte telomere length and personality: associations with the Big Five and Type D personality traits

Schoormans, Dounya; Verhoeven, Josine E.; Denollet, Johan; Poll‐Franse, Lonneke V. van de; Penninx, Brenda W. J. H.

doi:10.1017/s0033291717002471

Cited by 9 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…However, many clinical studies pointing to a relationship between telomere length and either personality or age-related disease assess telomere length from blood samples, reporting leukocyte telomere length as a proxy measure for cellular aging 3 – 6 , 29 – 31 . The true meaning of such research relies upon the fundamental assumption that changes in telomere length are robust across tissues, and that leukocyte telomere length faithfully reflects tissues relevant to disease, such as the heart and brain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In an attempt to obtain a more objective measure of the impact of personality on aging, more recent research has examined the link between personality and telomere length [3][4][5][6] . Telomeres, tandem repeat guanine-rich DNA sequences, are specialised protective caps located at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…As such, telomere length may be considered as both a 'mitotic clock' , reflecting cellular aging, and a mechanism through which age-related disease occurs 11,12 . Using leukocyte telomere length as a biomarker of cellular aging, several studies have reported a significant correlation between personality traits and telomere length [3][4][5][6] .…”

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confidence: 99%

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Stress reactivity elicits a tissue-specific reduction in telomere length in aging zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Evans

Torres-Pérez

Petrazzini

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Individual differences in personality are associated with variation in healthy aging. Health behaviours are often cited as the likely explanation for this association; however, an underlying biological mechanism may also exist. Accelerated leukocyte telomere shortening is implicated in multiple age-related diseases and is associated with chronic activation of the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, providing a link between stress-related personality differences and adverse health outcomes. However, the effects of the HPA axis are tissue specific. Thus, leukocyte telomere length may not accurately reflect telomere length in disease-relevant tissues. Here, we examined the correlation between stress reactivity and telomere length in heart and brain tissue in young (6–9 month) and aging (18 month) zebrafish. Stress reactivity was assessed by tank diving and through gene expression. Telomere length was assessed using quantitative PCR. We show that aging zebrafish have shorter telomeres in both heart and brain. Telomere length was inversely related to stress reactivity in heart but not brain of aging individuals. These data support the hypotheses that an anxious predisposition contributes to accelerated telomere shortening in heart tissue, which may have important implications for our understanding of age-related heart disease, and that stress reactivity contributes to age-related telomere shortening in a tissue-specific manner.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Stress reactivity elicits a tissue-specific reduction in telomere length in aging zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Evans

Torres-Pérez

Petrazzini

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…We had previously reported shorter TL among men and women who were more defensive in a study involving healthy participants [30]. Findings by Shoormans and colleagues [58] may provide additional insight into the mixed results regarding TL and personality traits. They found that while those with Type D personality (a construct related to defensiveness) had shorter TL at study onset, they were also less likely to show TL shortening over a period of 6 years compared to those without Type D. Protection from TL loss over time may have occurred via activation of telomerase [59].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 65%

The associations of hostility and defensiveness with telomere length are influenced by sex and health status

et al. 2021

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Background Shorter telomere length (TL) may indicate premature cellular aging and increased risk for disease. While there is substantial evidence for shorter TL in individuals suffering from psychiatric disorders, data is scarce on maladaptive personality traits related to coronary artery disease (CAD). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association of TL with hostility and defensiveness in individuals with CAD or other non-cardiovascular illnesses and whether associations were moderated by CAD status and sex. Methods One thousand thirty-six individuals (Mage = 65.40 ± 6.73 years) with and without CAD completed the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale and the Cook–Medley Hostility Scale. Relative TL was measured via quantitative polymerase chain reaction of total genomic DNA samples. Analyses involved hierarchical regressions on TL, performed separately for hostility and defensiveness, controlling for pertinent sociodemographic, behavioural, and medical risk factors. Separate analyses were performed on 25 healthy participants. Results A hostility by sex interaction emerged (β = − .08, p = .006) in the patient groups, where greater hostility was associated with shorter TL in women only (p < .01). A Defensiveness by CAD status interaction (β = − .06, p = .049) revealed longer TL in more defensive CAD patients only (p = .06). In healthy men, shorter TL was observed in those with greater defensiveness (β = .52, p = .006) but lower hostility (β = − .43, p = .049). Conclusion Hostility and defensiveness are differentially associated with TL as a function of sex and health status. The implication of these results for health remains to be determined, but propose an additional pathway through which the effect of maladaptive personality traits may contribute to CV and other disease.

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“…Type D personality can also be described as a continuous trait, using the multiplicative interaction of SI by NA. Multiple biological (e.g., systemic inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, autonomic nervous dysregulation, telomere shortening) and behavioural (e.g., sleep problems, poor social support, poorer self-management skills) pathways are associated with Type D personality and may explain its adverse effects (Denollet et al 2018 ; Jandackova et al 2017 ; Kupper and Denollet 2018 ; Schoormans et al 2018 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Heritability of Type D Personality by an Extended Twin-Pedigree Analysis in the Netherlands Twin Register

et al. 2020

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Type D (Distressed) personality combines negative affectivity (NA) and social inhibition (SI) and is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. We aimed to (1) validate a new proxy based on the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) for Type D personality and its NA and SI subcomponents and (2) estimate the heritability of the Type D proxy in an extended twin-pedigree design in the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR). Proxies for the dichotomous Type D classification, and continuous NA, SI, and NAxSI (the continuous measure of Type D) scales were created based on 12 ASEBA items for 30,433 NTR participants (16,449 twins and 13,984 relatives from 11,106 pedigrees) and sources of variation were analyzed in the ‘Mendel’ software package. We estimated additive and non-additive genetic variance components, shared household and unique environmental variance components and ran bivariate models to estimate the genetic and non-genetic covariance between NA and SI. The Type D proxy showed good reliability and construct validity. The best fitting genetic model included additive and non-additive genetic effects with broad-sense heritabilities for NA, SI and NAxSI estimated at 49%, 50% and 49%, respectively. Household effects showed small contributions (4–9%) to the total phenotypic variation. The genetic correlation between NA and SI was .66 (reflecting both additive and non-additive genetic components). Thus, Type D personality and its NA and SI subcomponents are heritable, with a shared genetic basis for the two subcomponents.

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Leukocyte telomere length and personality: associations with the Big Five and Type D personality traits

Cited by 9 publications

References 55 publications

Stress reactivity elicits a tissue-specific reduction in telomere length in aging zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Stress reactivity elicits a tissue-specific reduction in telomere length in aging zebrafish (Danio rerio)

The associations of hostility and defensiveness with telomere length are influenced by sex and health status

The Heritability of Type D Personality by an Extended Twin-Pedigree Analysis in the Netherlands Twin Register

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