In the United States, more than half of children and adolescents experience one or more exposures to early life stress (ELS), such as household dysfunction, abuse, neglect and economic hardship. Recent analysis has shown that $748 billion annually in healthcare burdens, in Europe and North America, can be attributed to ELS effects.
In addition to this overall cost, ELS has been strongly linked with adult-onset cardiovascular disease (CVD). Though this link has been known for many years, it remains an under-appreciated CVD risk factor. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) are working to define what causes ELS to lead to CVD risk and establish strategies for prevention and effective treatment of CVD consequences in individuals exposed to ELS.
This study titled, “Early Life Stress Induced Mechanisms of Cardiovascular Disease Risk and Resilience,” is a Program Project Grant funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and provides $2.2 million per year for five years to support four projects and three cores.
In the Department of Pediatrics, Michael Seifert, M.D., M.S.C.I., associate professor in the Division of Pediatric Nephrology, is leading one of the 4 projects that is focused on ELS-induced reprogramming of blood pressure and vascular function in adolescents. Data from the Kaul Pediatric Research Institute (KPRI) funded Impact of Early Life STressors on the BLood Pressure and Vascular Function In AdoleScents and CHildren (ESTaBLISH) pilot study was used to support this grant and project.
As part of the project, Dr. Seifert and his team will study whether adolescents exposed to ELS will have increased vascular stiffness and ambulatory blood pressure. The researchers hope that through studying adolescents they may be able to identify targets for future intervention studies to prevent ELS-associated CVD.
“Early life stress and childhood adversity have been linked to future cardiovascular disease risk for over 20 years, yet we still understand relatively little about the mechanisms of disease,” explains Dr. Seifert. “These four studies will synergize to reveal important new knowledge about how early life stress acts across the lifespan to increase cardiovascular risk in adulthood. We also hope to learn how resilience or other protective factors can mitigate the effects of early life stress on inflammation and vascular dysfunction.”
In addition to Dr. Seifert, Jennifer Pollock, Ph.D., professor in the Division of Nephrology at UAB, will be the lead on Project 1: “Early life stress-induced reprogramming of vascular function by the endothelium and macrophage systems.” David Pollock Ph.D., professor in the Division of Nephrology at UAB, and Alan Kim Johnson, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Iowa, will be the co-leads on Project 2: “Central nervous system reprogramming of the control of blood pressure induced by early life stress.” Sylvie Mrug, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychology at UAB, will be the lead on Project 4: “Prospective effects of early life stress and protective factors on cardiovascular phenotype and inflammation in adulthood.”