Title: Prenatal Stress, Methylation in Inflammation-Related Genes, and Adiposity Measures in Early Childhood: the Programming Research in Obesity, Growth Environment and Social Stress Cohort Study.
Authors: Wu, Shaowei; Gennings, Chris; Wright, Rosalind J; Wilson, Ander; Burris, Heather H; Just, Allan C; Braun, Joseph M; Svensson, Katherine; Zhong, Jia; Brennan, Kasey J M; Dereix, Alexandra; Cantoral, Alejandra; Schnaas, Lourdes; Téllez-Rojo, Martha Maria; Wright, Robert O; Baccarelli, Andrea A
Published In Psychosom Med, (2018 Jan)
Abstract: Maternal stress during pregnancy may influence childhood growth and adiposity, possibly through immune/inflammatory programming. We investigated whether exposure to prenatal stress and methylation in inflammation-related genes were associated with childhood adiposity in 424 mother-child pairs in Mexico City, Mexico.A stress index was created based on four prenatally administered stress-related scales (Exposure to Violence, Crisis in Family Systems, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale). We measured weight, height, body fat mass (BFM), percentage body fat (PBF), and waist circumference in early childhood (age range, 4-6 years). Body mass index (BMI) z scores were calculated according to World Health Organization standards. DNA methylation in gene promoters of tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin 8, and interleukin 6 (IL6) in umbilical cord blood were determined by pyrosequencing.An interquartile range increase in stress index (27.3) was associated with decreases of 0.14 unit in BMI z score (95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.28 to -0.005), 5.6% in BFM (95% CI = -9.7 to -1.4), 3.5% in PBF (95% CI = -6.3 to -0.5), and 1.2% in waist circumference (95% CI = -2.4 to -0.04) in multivariable-adjusted models. An interquartile range increase in IL6 methylation (3.9%) was associated with increases of 0.23 unit in BMI z score (95% CI = 0.06-0.40), 8.1% (95% CI = 2.3-14.3) in BFM, 5.5% (95% CI = 1.7-9.5) in PBF, and 1.7% (95% CI = 0.2-3.3) in waist circumference.Prenatal stress was associated with decreased childhood adiposity, whereas cord blood IL6 methylation was associated with increased childhood adiposity in Mexican children.
PubMed ID:
28787364
MeSH Terms: Adiposity/physiology*; Body Mass Index*; Child; Child, Preschool; Cohort Studies; DNA Methylation/physiology*; Female; Fetal Blood/metabolism*; Humans; Inflammation/metabolism*; Interleukin-6/metabolism*; Interleukin-8/metabolism; Pregnancy; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects/metabolism*; Stress, Psychological/complications*; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha/metabolism; Waist Circumference/physiology*