Prenatal Stress, Prematurity, and Asthma

Abstract

Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, affecting millions of children in the U.S. and worldwide. Prematurity is a risk factor for asthma, and certain ethnic or racial minorities such as Puerto Ricans and non-Hispanic Blacks are disproportionately affected by both prematurity and asthma. In this review, we examine current evidence to support maternal psychosocial stress as a putative link between prematurity and asthma, while also focusing on disruption of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and immune responses as potential underlying mechanisms for stress-induced “premature asthma”. Prenatal stress may not only cause abnormalities in the HPA axis but also epigenetic changes in the fetal glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1), leading to impaired glucocorticoid metabolism. Moreover, maternal stress can alter fetal cytokine balance, favoring Th2 (allergic) immune responses characteristic of atopic asthma: IL-6, which has been associated with premature labor, can promote Th2 responses by stimulating production of IL-4 and IL-13. Given a link among stress, prematurity, and asthma, future research should include birth cohorts aimed at confirming and better characterizing “premature asthma”. If confirmed, clinical trials of prenatal maternal stress reduction would be warranted to reduce the burden of these common co-morbidities. While awaiting the results of such studies, sound policies to prevent domestic and community violence (e.g. from firearms) are justified, not only by public safety but also by growing evidence of detrimental effects of violence-induced stress on psychiatric and somatic health.

Evidence for a Posterior Parietal Cortex Contribution to Spatial but not Temporal Numerosity Perception

“…Against this background, our results suggest that it may be parietal cortex activity that drives the association between the approximate number system and formal math skills. On a functional level, this parallels the idea that structural features of parietal cortex correlate with formal math skills (Price et al, 2016) To conclude, while the absence of evidence may not be confounded with evidence for absence, considering the MVPA results, our study casts some doubt on the idea of a modeindependent numerosity representation in IPS. As the neural circuits for simultaneous and sequential numerosity comparison largely overlap in response trials, our results do not contradict with previous studies that used numerical tasks and reported common activation for both modes.…”

Pre‐term birth and asthma is associated with hypomineralized second primary molars in pre‐schoolers: A population‐based study

“…22 In addition, the literature reports that pre-mature newborn has increased salivary levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-8, which acts as a potent neutrophil chemoattractant, causing inflammation of the airways. 22 Therefore, the increase in pro-inflammatory cytokines may be a risk marker for asthma. There are no studies demonstrating an association between HSPM and asthma, but MIH is associated with respiratory problems in general, including asthma.…”

Isolation and Identification of Bacteria-producing Cellulose from Tropical Fruit for Halal Capsule Application

“…; isolated from the watermelon and papaya were not chosen for further experiments due to it being pathogenic. Burkholderia is a genus of proteobacteria that refers to a group of gramnegative, obligate aerobic and rod-shaped bacteria [8]. Several members of this genus are prominent opportunistic pathogens where B. mallei and B. pseudomallei.…”

“…Several members of this genus are prominent opportunistic pathogens where B. mallei and B. pseudomallei. B. cepacia, B. mallei, B. pseudomallei, B. cenocepacia, and B. pseudomallei can cause cystic fibrosis and are very challenging to treat [8]. Therefore, the subsequent study only focuses on isolate with ID number 003 in which isolate number 003 from mangosteen was identified as Enterobacter sp.…”