title: Cellular aging in depression: Permanent imprint or reversible process?: An overview of the current evidence, mechanistic pathways, and targets for interventions.
abstract: Depression might be associated with accelerated cellular aging. However, does this result in an irreversible state or is the body able to slow down or recover from such a process? Telomeres are DNA-protein complexes that protect the ends of chromosomes and generally shorten with age; and therefore index cellular aging. The majority of studies indicate that persons with depression have shorter leukocyte telomeres than similarly aged non-depressed persons, which may contribute to the observed unfavorable somatic health outcomes in the depressed population. Some small-scale preliminary studies raise the possibility that behavioral or pharmacological interventions may either slow down or else reverse this accelerated telomere shortening, possibly through increasing the activity of the telomere-lengthening enzyme telomerase. This paper covers the current state of evidence in the relationship between depression and the telomere-telomerase system and debates whether depression-related cellular aging should be considered a reversible process or permanent damage.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Josine E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Verhoeven
authors.forename: Dóra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Révész
authors.forename: Owen M
authors.initials: OM
authors.lastname: Wolkowitz
authors.forename: Brenda W J H
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Penninx
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research; D016922:Cellular Senescence; D003863:Depression / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D018392:Genomic Imprinting; D006801:Humans; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics; D059505:Telomere Homeostasis / Q000235:genetics
keywords: cellular aging; depression; intervention studies; major depressive disorder; telomerase; telomere homeostasis; telomere length