Social Relationships and Cellular Aging

社会关系和细胞衰老

• 批准号: 7301491
• 负责人: Bert N. Uchino
• 金额: $ 15.32万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-01 至 2009-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7301491
• 关键词: Age; Aging; Aging-Related Process; Behavioral; Behavioral Mechanisms; Biological; Biological Aging; Cardiovascular system; Cell Aging; Cell Line; Child; Class; Communicable Diseases; Complement; Data; Development; Disease; Elderly; Enzymes; Exploratory/Developmental Grant; Glass; Grant; Health; Health behavior; Housing; Intervention; Joints; Length; Link; Literature; Longitudinal Studies; Measures; Mediating; Mediator of activation protein; Mental Depression; Methods; Modeling; Morbidity - disease rate; Numbers; Outcome; Pathway interactions; Persons; Physiological; Population; Predisposition; Process; Public Health; Relative (related person); Research; Risk; Sampling; Social Network; Social support; Source; Telomerase; Testing; Thinking; Woman; Work; base; forging; indexing; men; middle age; mortality; novel; psychologic; repaired; social; telomere; theories; therapy design

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The quality and quantity of one's social relationships are reliably related to physical health outcomes. For instance, there is strong evidence linking social support to lower overall disease morbidity and mortality. Given links between relationships and mortality across different diseases, a focus on more general biological pathways that may be responsible for such links is important. Such research would complement existing disease-specific approaches, and highlight potentially important integrative mechanisms. This application attempts to forge such links by examining the association between relationships and novel indicators of biological aging at the cellular level (i.e., telomere length, telomerase activity). Thus, the primary aim of this R21 exploratory / developmental grant is to examine links between relationships and aspects of cellular aging thought to influence general susceptibility to disease. A second aim of this grant is to examine such links in the context of a general conceptual model that highlights the joint influence of positive and negative aspects of social relationships on health (i.e., supportive, aversive, and ambivalent). A final aim will be to examine the potential pathways responsible for links between relationships and health. Thus, we will investigate potential psychological and behavioral mechanisms linking relationships to indicators of cellular aging. We pursue these aims in an initial study of 180 healthy men and women between the ages of 50 to 70. We will utilize this sample as middle-aged and older adults comprise a growing segment of the population and identification of factors that promote greater resiliency or risk in such populations is an important public health agenda. Measures of social relationships, telomere length, telomerase activity, and conceptually- relevant psychological and behavioral mediators will be obtained. We predict that social support (as well as other relationship processes) will be associated with these indicators of cellular aging; and these associations will be mediated by relevant behavioral and psychological processes (see application for specific predictions). It is our hope that this exploratory research can serve as the basis for the development of longitudinal studies that are able to (a) link social ties to actual changes in cellular aging (i.e., telomere lengthening or shortening), (b) model plausible mechanisms at multiple levels of analysis, (c) provide more direct links to the development and exacerbation of disease processes, and (d) inform relevant interventions aimed at promoting health through relationship processes. Determining the factors that influence the biological aging process is important to inform theory and relevant interventions. In this R21 application, we test links between social ties and aspects of cellular aging using a more comprehensive model of relationships and by modeling relevant psychological and behavioral pathways. This project will provide preliminary evidence on the plausibility of such links, and the levels of analysis (e.g., social, biological) that could be targeted as potential entry points for interventions.

描述（由申请人提供）：一个人社会关系的质量和数量与身体健康结果有可靠的关系。例如，有强有力的证据表明，社会支持与降低总体疾病发病率和死亡率有关。鉴于不同疾病之间的关系与死亡率之间的联系，关注可能导致这种联系的更一般的生物学途径是很重要的。这种研究将补充现有的针对特定疾病的方法，并突出潜在的重要综合机制。本应用程序试图通过在细胞水平（即端粒长度，端粒酶活性）检查关系与生物衰老的新指标之间的关联来建立这种联系。因此，这项R21探索性/发展性资助的主要目的是研究被认为影响疾病易感性的细胞衰老的关系和方面之间的联系。这项赠款的第二个目的是在一个一般概念模型的背景下研究这种联系，该模型强调社会关系对健康的积极和消极方面的共同影响（即支持、厌恶和矛盾）。最终目的将是研究人际关系与健康之间的潜在联系。因此，我们将研究潜在的心理和行为机制与细胞衰老指标的关系。为了实现这些目标，我们对180名年龄在50至70岁之间的健康男性和女性进行了初步研究。我们将利用这一样本，因为中老年人在人口中所占的比例越来越大，确定在这类人群中促进更大复原力或风险的因素是一项重要的公共卫生议程。将获得社会关系、端粒长度、端粒酶活性和概念相关的心理和行为介质的测量。我们预测社会支持（以及其他关系过程）将与细胞衰老的这些指标相关；这些关联将被相关的行为和心理过程所调节（参见具体预测的应用）。我们希望这项探索性研究可以作为纵向研究发展的基础，这些研究能够(a)将社会关系与细胞衰老的实际变化（即端粒延长或缩短）联系起来，(b)在多个分析层面建立合理的机制模型，(c)为疾病过程的发展和恶化提供更直接的联系，以及(d)为旨在通过关系过程促进健康的相关干预提供信息。确定影响生物衰老过程的因素对于告知理论和相关干预措施是重要的。在这个R21应用程序中，我们使用一个更全面的关系模型并通过建模相关的心理和行为途径来测试社会关系与细胞衰老方面之间的联系。该项目将提供初步证据，证明这种联系的合理性，以及可以作为干预措施潜在切入点的分析水平（例如社会、生物）。