Childhood psychosocial stress is linked with impaired vascular endothelial function, lower SIRT1, and oxidative stress in young adulthood

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are psychosocial stressors that occur during sensitive developmental windows and are associated with increased lifetime cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in a dose-dependent manner. Vascular endothelial dysfunction is a pathophysiological mechanism that promotes hypertension and CVD and may be a mechanism by which ACEs contribute to lifetime CVD risk. We examined whether exposure to ACEs is associated with reduced vascular endothelial function (VEF) in otherwise healthy, young adult women (20.7 ± 3 yr) with (ACE + ) versus without (ACE - ) ACEs, explored whether differences in circulating sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) or systemic oxidative stress could explain ACEs-related differences in VEF, and examined the ability of a pilot, 8-wk exercise intervention to augment VEF and SIRT1 or reduce oxidized LDL cholesterol (oxLDL) in ACE + young adult women. Forty-two otherwise healthy young adults completed this study. Prior to the intervention, VEF ( P = 0.002) and SIRT1 ( P = 0.004) were lower in the ACE + than ACE - group, but oxLDL concentrations were not different ( P = 0.77). There were also significant relationships ( P ≤ 0.04) among flow-mediated dilation (FMD), SIRT1, and oxLDL in the ACE + , but not ACE - group. Adjusting for circulating SIRT1 and oxLDL reduced the differences in FMD observed between groups ( P = 0.10), but only SIRT1 was a significant adjuster of the means ( P < 0.05). Finally, the exercise intervention employed was unable to enhance VEF or SIRT1 in the ACE + exercise group. Our data suggest that ACEs likely increase susceptibility to hypertension and CVD by causing endothelial dysfunction, perhaps through a SIRT1 pathway-related mechanism. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Our study provides novel evidence that young adult women with moderate-to-severe adverse childhood experience (ACE) exposure present impaired endothelial function and lower circulating sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) concentrations than age-matched controls. However, an 8-wk exercise intervention was unable to augment endothelial function or SIRT1 concentrations in a subset of those with ACEs. Our data suggest that ACEs-related impairments in endothelial function may be secondary to decreased NO bioavailability via SIRT1 and/or oxidative stress-related mechanisms.