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Review
. 2010 Aug;35(7):955-62.
doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2010.06.008. Epub 2010 Jul 13.

Elevating the perspective on human stress genomics

Steve W Cole  1
Affiliations
Review

Elevating the perspective on human stress genomics

Steve W Cole. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2010 Aug.

Abstract

Functional genomics strategies have been slow to penetrate research on human stress and coping, but recent conceptual advances have yielded a raft of new findings relating social and psychological conditions to broad alterations in human gene expression. This article reviews the field of human stress genomics, analyzes some of the conceptual and technical issues that initially hampered its progress, and outlines an abstractionist approach to genomic data analysis that has revealed a surprisingly consistent pattern of human transcriptional responses to diverse types of socio-environmental adversity. This field is now poised for another round of significant advances as research begins to incorporate the effects of DNA polymorphism, target a broader array of healthy and diseased tissues, and identify general teleologic and regulatory themes by pooling results over a growing body of studies analyzing the human transcriptional response to stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest

The author reports no conflict of interest.

References

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Further Reading

    1. Morita K, Saito T, Ohta M, Ohmori T, Kawai K, Teshima-Kondo S, Rokutan K. Expression analysis of psychological stress-associated genes in peripheral blood leukocytes. Neurosci Lett. 2005;381 (1–2):57–62. - PubMed

    2. One of the first studies of the human transcriptional response to stress, this paper analyzed the effects of a truly acute stressor (Ph.D. thesis defense!) on a targeted subset of the human transcriptome

    1. Weaver IC, Meaney MJ, Szyf M. Maternal care effects on the hippocampal transcriptome and anxiety-mediated behaviors in the offspring that are reversible in adulthood. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006;103 (9):3480–5. - PMC - PubMed

    2. One of the few analyses focusing on the CNS transcriptome, this study shows how early life social conditions can remodel gene expression profiles in the hippocampus. This study is part of a broader line of research showing that salutary social conditions in early life can reduce “defensive programming” of the developing body and thereby optimize later neuroendocrine responses to stress

    1. Cole SW, Hawkley LC, Arevalo JM, Sung CY, Rose RM, Cacioppo JT. Social regulation of gene expression in human leukocytes. Genome Biol. 2007;8(R189):1–13. - PMC - PubMed

    2. This pivotal study provided the first indication that long-term social adversity is associated with broad transcriptional alterations in the human immune system. Several recurring biological themes initially emerged in this paper, including indications of glucocorticoid resistance, NF-κBlinked chronic inflammation, and suppression of innate antiviral responses

    1. Miller GE, Chen E, Fok AK, Walker H, Lim A, Nicholls EF, Cole S, Kobor MS. Low early-life social class leaves a biological residue manifested by decreased glucocorticoid and increased proinflammatory signaling. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009;106 (34):14716–21. - PMC - PubMed

    2. A remarkable study showing that early life social conditions can leave an enduring imprint on human gene expression decades later in adulthood. This is one of a number of studies documenting a pro-inflammatory shift in leukocyte gene expression in response to socio-environmental adversity

    1. Cole SW. Social regulation of human gene expression. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2009;18(3):132–137. - PMC - PubMed

    2. In addition to surveying the broad field of social genomics, this review develops some of the theoretical implications of socio-environmental gene regulation for long-term individual developmental trajectories

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