Relationship between leukocyte telomere length and personality traits in healthy subjects.
BACKGROUND
It has been shown that certain personality traits are related to mortality and disease morbidity, but the biological mechanism linking them remains unclear. Telomeres are tandem repeat DNA sequences located at the ends of chromosomes, and shorter telomere length is a predictor of mortality and late-life disease morbidity. Thus, it is possible that personality traits influence telomere length. In the present study, we examined the relationship of leukocyte telomere length with personality traits in healthy subjects.


METHODS
The subjects were 209 unrelated healthy Japanese who were recruited from medical students at 4th-5th grade. Assessment of personality traits was performed by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI). Leukocyte relative telomere length was determined by a quantitative real-time PCR method for a ratio of telomere/single copy gene.


RESULTS
In the stepwise multiple regression analysis, shorter telomere length was related to lower scores of neuroticism (P<0.01) and conscientiousness (P<0.05) of the NEO-PI-R, and lower scores of harm avoidance (P<0.05) and reward dependence (P<0.05) of the TCI.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study suggests that leukocyte telomere length is associated with some personality traits, and this association may be implicated in the relationship between personality traits and mortality.
Department of Psychiatry, Yamagata University School of Medicine, 2-2-2 Iida-Nishi, Yamagata 990-9585, Japan.
R
R
Sadahiro
Department of Psychiatry, Yamagata University School of Medicine, 2-2-2 Iida-Nishi, Yamagata 990-9585, Japan. Electronic address: suzukiakihito@hotmail.com.
A
A
Suzuki
Department of Psychiatry, Yamagata University School of Medicine, 2-2-2 Iida-Nishi, Yamagata 990-9585, Japan.
M
M
Enokido
Department of Psychiatry, Yamagata University School of Medicine, 2-2-2 Iida-Nishi, Yamagata 990-9585, Japan.
Y
Y
Matsumoto
Department of Psychiatry, Yamagata University School of Medicine, 2-2-2 Iida-Nishi, Yamagata 990-9585, Japan.
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N
Shibuya
Department of Psychiatry, Yamagata University School of Medicine, 2-2-2 Iida-Nishi, Yamagata 990-9585, Japan.
M
M
Kamata
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Yamagata University School of Medicine, 2-2-2 Iida-Nishi, Yamagata 990-9585, Japan.
K
K
Goto
Department of Psychiatry, Yamagata University School of Medicine, 2-2-2 Iida-Nishi, Yamagata 990-9585, Japan.
K
K
Otani
D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders; D044466:Asian People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002605:Character; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005260:Female; D064368:Healthy Volunteers; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007962:Leukocytes; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality; D000075384:Neuroticism; D010551:Personality / Q000235:genetics; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012201:Reward; D020377:Self Efficacy; D016615:Telomere; D013694:Temperament
Healthy subjects; Personality; Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R); Telomere length; Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI)