title: Early-life adversity accelerates cellular ageing and affects adult inflammation: Experimental evidence from the European starling.
abstract: Early-life adversity is associated with accelerated cellular ageing during development and increased inflammation during adulthood. However, human studies can only establish correlation, not causation, and existing experimental animal approaches alter multiple components of early-life adversity simultaneously. We developed a novel hand-rearing paradigm in European starling nestlings (Sturnus vulgaris), in which we separately manipulated nutritional shortfall and begging effort for a period of 10 days. The experimental treatments accelerated erythrocyte telomere attrition and increased DNA damage measured in the juvenile period. For telomere attrition, amount of food and begging effort exerted additive effects. Only the combination of low food amount and high begging effort increased DNA damage. We then measured two markers of inflammation, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, when the birds were adults. The experimental treatments affected both inflammatory markers, though the patterns were complex and different for each marker. The effect of the experimental treatments on adult interleukin-6 was partially mediated by increased juvenile DNA damage. Our results show that both nutritional input and begging effort in the nestling period affect cellular ageing and adult inflammation in the starling. However, the pattern of effects is different for different biomarkers measured at different time points.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behaviour and Evolution &Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nettle
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behaviour and Evolution &Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Andrews
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.|Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK.
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reichert
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behaviour and Evolution &Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bedford
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kolenda
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Craig
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Martin-Ruiz
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
authors.forename: Pat
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Monaghan
authors.affiliation: Centre for Behaviour and Evolution &Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bateson
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers; D016922:Cellular Senescence; D007249:Inflammation / Q000209:etiology*; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D046749:Starlings; D013312:Stress, Physiological; D016615:Telomere / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers