Low early-life social class leaves a biological residue manifested by decreased glucocorticoid and increased proinflammatory signaling

Children reared in unfavorable socioeconomic circumstances show increased susceptibility to the chronic diseases of aging when they reach the fifth and sixth decades of life. One mechanistic hypothesis for this phenomenon suggests that social adversity in early life programs biological systems in a manner that persists across decades and thereby accentuates vulnerability to disease. Here we examine the basic tenets of this hypothesis by performing genome-wide transcriptional profiling in healthy adults who were either low or high in socioeconomic status (SES) in early life. Among subjects with low early-life SES, there was significant up-regulation of genes bearing response elements for the CREB/ATF family of…

• HA
  Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
• CI
  Canadian Institute for Advanced Research
• MS
  Michael Smith Health Research BC
• NI
  National Institute of Child Health and Human Development