Perspectives on the Future of the Sociology of Aging (2012) / Chapter Skim
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8 Social Genomics and the Life Course: Opportunities and Challenges for Multilevel Population Research
8 Social Genomics and the Life Course: Opportunities and Challenges for Multilevel Population Research
Pages 155-172
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From page 155... ...
Social genomics was chosen as the focus for this chapter because this subfield attempts to interrelate social settings with gene expression by way of chains of mediating factors, and thus illustrates the promise and challenges of multilevel research in sharp relief. The field of social genomics focuses on the mechanisms by which social experiences regulate genetic activity (Cole, 2009)
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From page 156... ...
Viewed broadly, social genomic research to date suggests a "two-stage" historiography: (1) earlier research, conducted by social and behavioral scientists, identified putative social risk factors and (2)
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From page 157... ...
The promoter region includes response elements, short sequences of DNA that can bind molecular flags known as transcription factors. Once a transcription factor attaches to a target response element, it can promote or block the recruitment of RNAP.
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From page 158... ...
Thus, this study of social isolation joined two very different research traditions: a considerable body of population-based research on risk factors, and biological models of leukocytes, which offer a non-invasive window into the immune system and inflammatory processes associated with many common diseases of aging. The basic issue, then, was whether genes were expressed differentially among socially isolated versus socially integrated adults.
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From page 159... ...
suggest that early adversity increases the likelihood of a "defensive phenotype" characterized by exaggerated biological response to stress, including inflammatory response. As stressors accumulate in the life course, individuals with this defensive phenotype will be more prone to inflammatory diseases, including some types of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases and cancers.
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From page 160... ...
STAGE THREE: POPULATION-BASED MULTILEVEL STUDIES This chapter has proposed a two-stage historiography according to which populationbased research identified putative social risk factors (Stage One) and, drawing on this research, social genomic studies identified possible biological mechanisms by which these risk factors could eventuate in diminished health (Stage Two)
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From page 161... ...
However, gene expression patterns may provide critical evidence of linking mechanisms that connect social experiences with health. The collection of gene expression data in the context of demographic and epidemiological research may be possible in the near future, although there are presently practical barriers (e.g., peripheral blood draws require non-trivial processing in a timely manner)
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From page 162... ...
With respect to trajectories of SES after age five, there are likely a limited number of life course trajectories of SES (Hallqvist et al., 2004; Rosvall et al., 2006) , raising the possibility that, for example, few people with chronically low SES before age five experience high SES over the next five years.
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From page 163... ...
All of these considerations suggest a highly nuanced life course model: a sensitive or critical period, with a possibly short induction period followed by chains of social, psychological, and biological risks with extensive positive feedback among them; the child's 8-9
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From page 164... ...
First, as noted, early pronounced, chronic stressors may lead people to view ambiguous situations as threatening, which in turn activates neuroendocrine processes that eventuate in changes in inflammatory signaling pathways (Irwin and Cole, 2011)
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From page 165... ...
First, does a given inflammatory condition reflect one specific social risk factor, or even one specific "signature set" of risk factors (i.e., specificity of contextual cause; L Shanahan, Copeland, Costello, and Angold, 2008)
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From page 166... ...
. Do risk factors that trigger GR resistance explain all of these disease states, or are there specific patterns of risk factors associated with specific inflammatory diseases?
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From page 167... ...
Such distinctions produce variation in life course patterns of school, work, and family, and perhaps they also bear on the stress load created by low SES. The corporatist and social democratic regimes provide substantially more support to lowincome households when compared to liberal regimes, but the social democratic society socializes costs associated with family life, and includes thorough welfare provisions for workers and the unemployed.
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From page 168... ...
. On the one hand, Stage Two research provides evidence of linking mechanisms that may connect social experiences and health, mechanisms that are necessary for any convincing causal account of social risk factors and health.
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From page 169... ...
PREPUBLICATION COPY -- UNCORRECTED PROOFS to diminished self-regulation, which in turn may well be associated with a wide range of risk behaviors. Population-based studies of health have traditionally had an admirably interdisciplinary quality.
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From page 170... ...
. Psychological risk factors for HIV pathogenesis: Mediation by the autonomic nervous system.
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From page 171... ...
. Can we disentangle life course processes of accumulation, critical period and social mobility?
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From page 172... ...
. Specificity of putative psychosocial risk factors for psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents.
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