title: Early life trauma is associated with decreased peripheral levels of thyroid-hormone T3 in adolescents.
abstract: An adverse early life environment can induce changes on behavioral and metabolic responses later in life. Recent studies in rats showed that the quality of maternal care as measured by high levels of pup licking and grooming (LG) was associated with changes in the relationship between the precursor thyroid-hormone T4 and the more active T3. Here we investigated if early exposure to childhood abuse is associated with thyroid-hormone levels in human adolescents. Given the empirical evidence from animal models showing that good maternal care was associated with increased conversion of T4 to T3, we hypothesized that early adversity would be associated with a decreased peripheral conversion of T4 to T3. A sample of 80 adolescents (10-18 years) participated in this study. We used the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire to investigate early life stress. We calculate the body mass index (BMI) assessing weight and height and sexual maturation stage was determined by self-assessment. Blood samples were collected to measure T3 and T4 levels. ANCOVA were used to evaluate the influence of the Physical Abuse domain of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire as the early life stress variable in T3 and T4 separately, adjusted for potential confounders such as pubertal status, gender, socioeconomic status and BMI. Early life trauma was associated with reduced T3 levels in adolescents, when adjusted for potential confounders (p=0.013), but not with peripheral T4 levels (p=0.625). We extended findings from animal models showing that adverse early experience persistently impacts on the individual's responses to stress, which is marked by an abnormal metabolism of thyroid hormones. Further studies are needed to further investigate the nature of such associations.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Electronic address: tanianutricionista@yahoo.com.br.
authors.forename: T D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Salum
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: V L
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Bosa
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: M Z
authors.initials: MZ
authors.lastname: Goldani
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, McGill University, Montreal, Quèbec, Canada; Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Singapore.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Meaney
authors.affiliation: Statistics Information Center, Fundação de Economia e Estatística, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Agranonik
authors.affiliation: Departments of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Manfro
authors.affiliation: Departments of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Silveira
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D000066550:Physical Abuse; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013974:Thyroxine / Q000097:blood; D014284:Triiodothyronine / Q000097:blood*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014284:Triiodothyronine; D013974:Thyroxine
keywords: Maternal care; Thyoxine T4; Thyroid hormones; Trauma; Triiodothyronine T3