Prenatal maternal stress prospectively relates to shorter child buccal cell telomere length

Abstract

Prenatal exposure to stress increases risk for suboptimal child and adult mental and physical health outcomes, hypothesized to occur via fetal exposure to maternal stress hormones that alter growth and development. One proposed pathway through which stress exposure in utero could affect the offspring is by accelerating cellular aging in the form of telomere attrition. We tested this hypothesis in a cohort of 111 mother-child dyads, where mothers were assessed over 6 or more years, beginning prior to conception, and later during pregnancy, postpartum, and when the children were 3-5 years old. Adjusting for child age and concurrent maternal stress, we found that higher maternal perceived stress in the 3rd trimesters of pregnancy was predictive of shorter child buccal telomere length (bTL) (β = − 0.24, p < .05), while maternal preconception and postpartum maternal stress were not associated with bTL (all p's > 0.42). These findings suggest a vulnerable time period in pregnancy when maternal stress influences offspring telomere length, suggesting the early embedding of adult disease might occur through biological aging pathways.

Prenatal exposure to maternal psychological distress and telomere length in childhood

“…The present research builds on prospective studies demonstrating that elevated maternal distress during the prenatal period predicted shorter TL at birth (Entringer et al., 2011; Send et al., 2017; Suh et al., 2019; Verner et al., 2020). Findings also are consistent with retrospective studies that observed shorter TL among adults exposed to stressful life events during fetal development (Wang et al., 2017) as well as recent research linking prenatal distress to TL during infancy and early childhood (Carroll et al., 2020; Suh et al., 2019). The present study expands prior work suggesting that prenatal distress predicts TL at least through adolescence.…”

“…Retrospective research shows that recall of prenatal maternal life events is associated with offspring TL beyond the newborn period (Entringer et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2017). Prospective studies have found that prenatal distress predicts TL at 1 year of age (Suh et al., 2019) and at 3–5 years of age (Carroll et al., 2020). These findings are consistent with research showing that exposure to stressors such as intimate partner violence and lower socioeconomic status during the prenatal period are associated with shorter offspring TL (Chan et al., 2019; Martens et al., 2020).…”

Cellular aging and telomere dynamics in pregnancy

“…Newborn leukocyte telomere length was measured from cord blood using quantitative PCR. Consistent with prior studies [24,26 ▪ ], newborn leukocyte telomere length was found to be significantly inversely associated with maternal stress during pregnancy (greater maternal stress, shorter newborn telomeres). In contrast, maternal ‘positivity’ and resilience during pregnancy were significantly positively associated with newborn telomeres (greater positivity and resilience, longer newborn telomeres).…”

Psychobiology of Stress and Adolescent Depression (PSY SAD) Study: Protocol overview for an fMRI-based multi-method investigation

“…For the first blood sample, 8.5 mL of blood was drawn into a PAXgene Blood DNA Tube, which was then transported to the UCLA Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology Inflammatory Biology Core Laboratory following each study visit and immediately stored at −80 °C. DNA were then extracted and used for the subsequent quantification of participants’ leukocyte telomere length as a marker of biological aging following standard real time qPCR methods, as published previously ( Carroll et al, 2016 , 2020 ; Robles et al, 2016 ). Briefly, the telomere assay was performed by the UCLA Aging Biology & Behavior Laboratory using a standard curve method where PCR products are generated for the telomere gene and hemoglobin gene, and cycle threshold values are then plotted on a standard curve of human genomic DNA to estimate ng/microliter concentration values.…”