U of M researchers uncover the link between stress, aging and senescent cells

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (11/20/2024) — Published in Nature Aging, new research led by a University of Minnesota Medical School research team studies how stress and aging are linked through shared biological mechanisms. The study aims to determine how exposure to social and psychological stressors can accelerate aging and affect health in preclinical models.

The research team found that social stress causes neurons in the hippocampus and cortex of preclinical models to show signs of senescence and DNA damage, common features of accelerated aging. This discovery highlights a potential way that stress in the social environment can accelerate the aging process. 

“This research was inspired by a significant amount of work proving that life stress, social determinants and low socioeconomic status, in particular, adversely affect health and aging in humans. However, the causal mechanisms are almost impossible to identify in humans,” said Alessandro Bartolomucci, PhD, a professor at the U of M Medical School and senior author of the study. “Our study represents the first step in the quest to identify how life stress can impact aging. The observation that social stressors increase markers of cellular senescence in the brain and other organs, which appears to be driven by DNA damage, among other factors, was a major finding.”

Future research will focus on understanding how stress influences several interconnected biological mechanisms known as hallmarks of aging, and whether targeting these mechanisms could help protect against the adverse health impact of life stress on the aging process. 

Funding was provided primarily by the National Institute on Aging, and the MN Partnership for Biotechnology and Molecular Genomics.