The long and the short of telomeres: Loneliness impacts DNA repair, parrot study shows

Sunday, April 6, 2014 - 14:30 in Psychology & Sociology

Scientists examined the telomere length of captive African grey parrots. They found that the telomere lengths of single parrots were shorter than those housed with a companion parrot, which supports the hypothesis that social stress can interfere with cellular aging and a particular type of DNA repair. It suggests that telomeres may provide a biomarker for assessing exposure to social stress.

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