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.

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Collaborations on this paper include Laura Niedernhofer, MD, PhD, director of the Institute for the Biology of Aging and Metabolism at U of M Medical School and other collaborators at U of M Medical School and Mayo Clinic. Grant award numbers include NIH R61/R33 AG078520, R01 HL151740, T32 AG029796, T32 DK083250, U54 AG076041, U54 AG079754, R01 AG063543, R01 HL166843 and R01 AI165553.

About the University of Minnesota Medical School
The University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. We acknowledge that the U of M Medical School is located on traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota and the Ojibwe, and scores of other Indigenous people, and we affirm our commitment to tribal communities and their sovereignty as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with tribal nations. For more information about the U of M Medical School, please visit med.umn.edu. 

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