Maternal psychosocial stress during pregnancy is associated with newborn leukocyte telomere length

Entringer, Sonja; Epel, Elissa S.; Lin, Jue; Buß, Claudia; Shahbaba, Babak; Blackburn, Elizabeth H.; Simhan, Hyagriv N.; Wadhwa, Pathik D.

doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2012.11.033

Cited by 190 publications

(156 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…14,15 New work has raised the possibility of fetal programming of telomere biology, whereby stress-related maternalplacental-fetal interactions during intrauterine growth regulate the initial setting of TL at birth. 6,16,17 Perceived facial age is an assessment of how old a person looks relative to his or her chronological age. The visual signs of aging (eg, skin wrinkles) reflect declining tissue integrity, indicative of the aging process.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Perinatal Complications and Aging Indicators by Midlife

et al. 2014

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WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Perinatal complications predict increased risk for morbidity and early mortality. Evidence of perinatal programming of adult mortality raises the question of what mechanisms embed this long-term effect. Telomere length and perceived facial age are 2 indicators of accelerated aging. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:Perinatal complications predicted greater signs of accelerated aging "inside," as measured objectively by leukocyte telomere length, an indicator of cellular aging, and "outside," as measured subjectively by perceived age, an indicator of declining integrity of tissues. abstract BACKGROUND: Perinatal complications predict increased risk for morbidity and early mortality. Evidence of perinatal programming of adult mortality raises the question of what mechanisms embed this long-term effect. We tested a hypothesis related to the theory of developmental origins of health and disease: that perinatal complications assessed at birth predict indicators of accelerated aging by midlife.METHODS: Perinatal complications, including both maternal and neonatal complications, were assessed in the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study cohort (N = 1037), a 38-year, prospective longitudinal study of a representative birth cohort. Two aging indicators were assessed at age 38 years, objectively by leukocyte telomere length (TL) and subjectively by perceived facial age. RESULTS:Perinatal complications predicted both leukocyte TL (b = 20.101; 95% confidence interval, 20.169 to 20.033; P = .004) and perceived age (b = 0.097; 95% confidence interval, 0.029 to 0.165; P = .005) by midlife. We repeated analyses with controls for measures of family history and social risk that could predispose to perinatal complications and accelerated aging, and for measures of poor health taken in between birth and the age-38 follow-up. These covariates attenuated, but did not fully explain the associations observed between perinatal complications and aging indicators.CONCLUSIONS: Our findings provide support for early-life developmental programming by linking newborns' perinatal complications to accelerated aging at midlife. We observed indications of accelerated aging "inside," as measured by leukocyte TL, an indicator of cellular aging, and "outside," as measured by perceived age, an indicator of declining tissue integrity. A better understanding of mechanisms underlying perinatal programming of adult aging is needed. Pediatrics 2014;134:e1315-e1323 AUTHORS:

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confidence: 99%

Perinatal Complications and Aging Indicators by Midlife

et al. 2014

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“…In 2013, the same group conducted a study on 27 mother-newborn dyads in order to assess how early maternal stress levels during pregnancy (i.e. also prenatal) affect newborn leukocyte TL [67]. In this second study, the authors found further evidence for significantly shorter leukocyte TL in newborns from mothers with greater stress exposure, indicating some sort of stress-related programming reflected in newborn TL.…”

Section: Transference Of Stress-induced Psychopathologiesmentioning

confidence: 57%

Transgenerational Effects of PTSD or Traumatic Stress: Do Telomeres Reach Across the Generations?

A¹

2014

J Trauma Treat

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Traumatic stress can alter allostatis and therefore mediate the development of psychological disorders. Recent evidence from molecular studies has shown that telomere length -a measure of cellular aging -is strongly influenced by a broad spectrum of stress. Telomere erosion might be accelerated by traumatic stress, and traumatic stress has shown to be associated with the risk of developing chronic diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases and immunologic conditions. Aim: The biological pathways between psychological stress and psychological disorders or physiological diseases are widely unknown. Some experimental studies in animal models and longitudinal studies in humans have investigated the transgenerational consequences of psychological stress on telomere length biology. Telomere length inheritance might provide an additional molecular mechanism for the germ line transmission of environmentally induced phenotypic change and might offer a new biological framework for the multifactorial path etiology underlying stress-related disorders. Procedure: Starting from the well-established allostatic load model, this article reviews theoretical and empirical work from animal models and humans in the field of telomere biology in association with traumatic stress, childhood trauma and post-traumatic stress disorders. Further it reviews recent approaches on telomere length inheritance, and combines these findings with transgenerational research of post-traumatic stress disorder biology. Conclusion: A better understanding of the transgenerational mechanisms underlying common diseases might ultimately help disease prevention of stress related disorders in subsequent generations.

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“…36 Entringer et al 37 assessed leukocyte telomere length in cord blood peripheral cells and observed a significant, independent, linear effect of pregnancy-specific stress on newborn infant leukocyte telomere length. These findings indicate that psychologic stress during pregnancy may program the developing telomere biology system, which is 1 of the predictors of agerelated diseases and death.…”

Section: Ajogorgmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fetal programming and systemic sclerosis

Donzelli

Carnesecchi

Amador

et al. 2015

American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology

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OBJECTIVE: This study investigated whether birthweight is linked to an increased risk of the development of systemic sclerosis. STUDY DESIGN:This was a multicenter case-control study with perinatal data that were obtained from 332 cases with systemic sclerosis and 243 control subjects. Birthweight was treated as a dichotomous variable (<2500 g vs !2500 g); low birthweight was defined as a weight <2500 g; small for gestational age was defined as birthweight <10th percentile for gestational age adjusted for sex. The relationship between systemic sclerosis and both low birthweight and small for gestational age was expressed with the crude (univariate analysis) and adjusted (multivariate analysis) odds ratio (OR). RESULTS:Significantly increased ORs were observed in the univariate analysis for low birthweight (OR, 2.59; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.39e5.05) and small for gestational age (OR, 2.60; 95% CI, 1.34e5.32) subjects. Similarly increased risks were confirmed for both conditions in the multivariate analysis (OR, 3.93; 95% CI, 1.92e8.07; and OR, 2.58; 95% CI, 1.28e5.19), respectively. CONCLUSION: Low birthweight and small for gestational age at birth are risk factors for the adult onset of systemic sclerosis.

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Maternal psychosocial stress during pregnancy is associated with newborn leukocyte telomere length

Cited by 190 publications

References 65 publications

Perinatal Complications and Aging Indicators by Midlife

Perinatal Complications and Aging Indicators by Midlife

Transgenerational Effects of PTSD or Traumatic Stress: Do Telomeres Reach Across the Generations?

Fetal programming and systemic sclerosis

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