Prenatal stress due to a natural disaster predicts insulin secretion in adolescence

Abstract

Prenatal stress might increase cardiometabolic disease risk. We measured prenatal stress due to an ice storm in 1998, and measured glucose tolerance among a subsample of 32 exposed adolescents in 2011. Severity of stress was positively associated with insulin secretion, suggesting that prenatal stress independently predicts metabolic outcomes in adolescence.

DNA Methylation Signatures Triggered by Prenatal Maternal Stress Exposure to a Natural Disaster: Project Ice Storm

“…Using genome-wide DNA methylation analyses, we observed that the degree of objective PNMS levels from the ice storm was significantly correlated with the methylation of 1675 CGs; surprisingly and interestingly, no correlations were found with subjective PNMS. Although we have shown that subjective PNMS from the ice storm predicts many behavioral outcomes such as anxiety, depression, and aggression in the children [18], objective PNMS in Project Ice Storm has been shown to be more important than the mothers' subjective distress levels in predicting cognitive outcomes such as IQ and language throughout childhood [22], [44], physical outcomes such as obesity at age 5½ [45], and insulin secretion at age 13 [46]. In the current study, maternal anxiety and depression at the child's age of 13½ years were not associated with objective PNMS (data not shown), suggesting that the effect of objective stress on DNA methylation is not the result of mediation via changes in maternal mood and anxiety.…”

Epigenetic regulation of the placental HSD11B2 barrier and its role as a critical regulator of fetal development

“…1 The glucocorticoid hypothesis describes how increased fetal exposure to maternal glucocorticoids, such as cortisol, as a result of prenatal stress during pregnancy is associated with a number of poor birth outcomes and increased risk for later-in-life neurological and cardiometabolic syndromes in exposed offspring. 1,2 Recent clinical and epidemiological studies have shown that maternal prenatal stress is associated with increased risk for preterm birth, reduced birth weight, 3 smaller head circumference 4 and later-in-life cardiometabolic 5 and neuropsychiatric disorders, 6 such as obesity, 5,7 type 1 diabetes, 8 schizophrenia, 6 autism, ADHD, 9 and impaired cognitive and language development. 10 As early as the 11-12th week of pregnancy, profound changes in the activity of the maternal hypothalamicpituitary axis (HPA) occur that lead to increased production of maternal cortisol.…”

A systematic review of the health effects of prenatal exposure to disaster

“…Children exposed to an ice storm had an increased risk of obesity at age 5.5 years (OR 1.37, 95 % CI 1.06, 1.77) , and there was a positive correlation between maternal distress and insulin secretion in the same children at age 13.5 years (p \ 0.01) (Dancause et al 2013). Exposure to famine increased the risk of glucose intolerance (OR 1.65, 95 % CI 1.02, 2.69) and overweight (OR 1.41, 95 % CI 1.03, 1.93) (Hult et al 2010).…”

“…In a review paper from 2012, King et al (2012) mentioned three dimensions of stress: the degree of objective exposure to the stressor, the level of subjective distress and the person's physiological response to the stressor. Interestingly, the Quebec ice storm cohort studies consistently found that objective maternal stress was associated with adverse health outcomes, while subjective stress appeared to play a smaller role (Walder et al 2014;Dancause et al 2012Dancause et al , 2013.…”