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Relaxation Response Induces Temporal Transcriptome Changes in Energy Metabolism, Insulin Secretion and Inflammatory Pathways
Open accessAbstract
The relaxation response (RR) is the counterpart of the stress response. Millennia-old practices evoking the RR include meditation, yoga and repetitive prayer. Although RR elicitation is an effective therapeutic intervention that counteracts the adverse clinical effects of stress in disorders including hypertension, anxiety, insomnia and aging, the underlying molecular mechanisms that explain these clinical benefits remain undetermined. To assess rapid time-dependent (temporal) genomic changes during one session of RR practice among healthy practitioners with years of RR practice and also in novices before and after 8 weeks of RR training, we measured the transcriptome in peripheral blood prior to, immediately after, and 15 minutes after listening to an RR-eliciting or a health education CD. Both short-term and long-term practitioners evoked significant temporal gene expression changes with greater significance in the latter as compared to novices. RR practice enhanced expression of genes associated with energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin secretion and telomere maintenance, and reduced expression of genes linked to inflammatory response and stress-related pathways. Interactive network analyses of RR-affected pathways identified mitochondrial ATP synthase and insulin (INS) as top upregulated critical molecules (focus hubs) and NF-κB pathway genes as top downregulated focus hubs. Our results for the first time indicate that RR elicitation, particularly after long-term practice, may evoke its downstream health benefits by improving mitochondrial energy production and utilization and thus promoting mitochondrial resiliency through upregulation of ATPase and insulin function. Mitochondrial resiliency might also be promoted by RR-induced downregulation of NF-κB-associated upstream and downstream targets that mitigates stress.
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“practices eliciting relaxation responses as the counterpart of the stress response have been demonstrated to evoke expression rate changes in genes associated with pro-inflammatory responses, stress-related cellular signaling, energy metabolism, mitochondrial functioning, insulin secretion and telomere maintenance (Bhasin et al., 2013).”
From The applied implications of epigenetics in anxiety, affective and stress-related disorders - A review and synthesis on psychosocial stress, psychotherapy and prevention (2020) · cites this paper as Bhasin et al., 2013
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“RR enhances genes associated with energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin secretion, and telomere maintenance, while reducing those linked to inflammation and stress [40,60,61].”
From Comprehensive review of chronic stress pathways and the efficacy of behavioral stress reduction programs (BSRPs) in managing diseases. (2024) · cites this paper as [60]
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“Research indicates that both novice and long-term practitioners of RR experience significant gene expression changes, with long-term practitioners showing greater effects.”
From Comprehensive review of chronic stress pathways and the efficacy of behavioral stress reduction programs (BSRPs) in managing diseases. (2024) · cites this paper as [60]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Bhasin, M. K., Dusek, J. A., Chang, B.-H., Joseph, M. G., Denninger, J. W., Fricchione, G. L., Benson, H., & Libermann, T. A.
- Affiliations
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (US)
- Abbott Northwestern Hospital (US)
- Boston University (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Libermann, Towia A.
- ORCID
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2013-05-01
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- e62817
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3641112
- OpenAlex
- W2163249197
- Cited by
- 304
- References
- 71
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 38 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 24 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 33 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 26 · 2013: 11
- FWCI
- 30.78
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2017-02-21)
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum
- National Institutes of Health (RR 01032)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- U.S. Public Health Service (H75/CCH 123424)
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
- National Center for Research Resources (RR 01032, M01-RR-01032, M01RR001032)
- National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (R01DP000339)
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (R01AT006464)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Biofield Effects and Biophysics
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Keywords
- relaxation response, meditation, gene expression, transcriptome, energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin secretion, telomere maintenance, NF-κB signaling, inflammation, stress response, mitochondrial ATP synthase, peripheral blood, stress resilience
- MeSH terms
- Insulin Secretion, Cross-Sectional Studies, Energy Metabolism, Gene Expression Regulation, Humans, Immune System, Insulin, Mitochondria, Nitric Oxide, Prospective Studies, Relaxation, Religion, Stress, Physiological, Yoga, Inflammation Mediators, Meditation, Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis, Gene Regulatory Networks, Transcriptome, Telomere Homeostasis
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