BackgroundEarthquakes and other catastrophic events frequently occurring worldwide can be considered as outliers and cause a growing and urgent need to improve our understanding of the negative effects imposed by such disasters. Earthquakes can intensively impact the birth outcomes upon psychological and morphological development of the unborn children, albeit detailed characteristics remain obscure.Methods and FindingsWe utilized the birth records at Du Jiang Yan and Peng Zhou counties to investigate the birth outcomes as a consequence of a major earthquake occurred in Wenchuan, China on May 12, 2008. Totally 13,003 of neonates were recorded, with 6638 and 6365 for pre- and post- earthquake, respectively. Significant low birthweight, high ratio of low birthweight, and low Apgar scores of post-earthquake group were observed. In contrast, the sex ratio at birth, birth length and length of gestation did not show statistical differences. The overall ratio of birth-defect in the post-earthquake (1.18%) is statistically high than that of pre-earthquake (0.99%), especially for those in the first trimester on earthquake day (1.47%). The birth-defect spectrum was dramatically altered after earthquake, with the markedly increased occurrences of ear malformations. The ratio of preterm birth post-earthquake (7.41%) is significant increased than that of pre-earthquake (5.63%). For the birth outcomes of twins, significant differences of the ratio of twins, birth weight, ratio of low birthweight and birth-defect rate were observed after earthquake.ConclusionA hospital-based study of birth outcomes impacted by the Wenchuan earthquake shows that the earthquake was associated with significant effects on birth outcomes, indicating it is a major monitor for long-term pregnant outcomes.

Background: Prenatal environmental enrichment (EE) has been proven to positively affect but prenatal stress negatively influence the

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Antenatal post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD can leave offspring with life-long mental and behavioural disorders. This study investigated the epigenetic mechanism of the effects of Jin Kui Shen Qi Wan (JKSQW) in preventing antenatal PTSD. Thirty-six pregnant rats were randomized into Control, PTSD and JKSQW. Offspring characteristics were investigated with open-field test (OFT), elevated pull maze (EPM), gene expression profile chip test and methylated DNA immunoprecipitation sequencing. In the OFT test, the PTSD offspring showed lower OFT scores than the Control and JKSQW groups (p < 0.05). The PTSD group's EPM performance, OE (open arm entry) + CE (closed arm entry), OE% and OT% (open arm time) were also lower than those of either the Control or the JKSQW group (p < 0.05). In the gene expression profile chip test, 54 genes showed dysregulation through PTSD intervention and were normalized by JKSQW. Endocytosis (Epn3, Folr1 and Hspa1l) and MAPK signaling (Fgf17, Hspa1l, Ntf3 and Pla2g5) pathways were annotated. Combining those genes and methylation sequencing, Ntf3 was identified in both tests. Compared with the Control, the PTSD offspring showed Ntf3 hypermethylation (Log 2 FC = 1.022) at 225679501»225680000 on Chromosome 4 and downregulation in the gene expression profile. The Ntf3 methylation level in JKSQW was restored nearly to the Control level (Log 2 FC = ¡1.082 in JKSQW vs. PTSD). In conclusion, the reduction in the offspring's behavioural performance might constitute experimental evidence of kidney deficiency due to Ntf3 hypermethylation, which could be prevented by JKSQW.