Prenatal hair cortisol concentrations during the COVID-19 outbreak: Associations with maternal psychological stress and infant temperament.

Maternal psychological stress during pregnancy, including stress resulting from disasters and trauma, has been linked to temperamental difficulties in offspring. Although heightened cortisol concentrations are often hypothesized as an underlying mechanism, evidence supporting this mechanism is not consistent, potentially because of methodological issues and low stress in the population. To address these issues, this preregistered study investigated the following associations between: 1) prenatal psychological stress and hair cortisol, as a biomarker for chronic stress, during the COVID-19 outbreak (i.e., as a major worldwide psychological stressor), and 2) maternal hair cortisol during the COVID-19 outbreak and later infant temperamental negative affectivity and orienting/regulation. Additionally, we explored whether associations were different for women with low versus high socioeconomic status (SES; maternal education and annual household income) and at different stages of pregnancy. Pregnant women (N = 100) filled out online questionnaires during the first COVID-19 lockdown. Six months later, when most mothers were still pregnant or had just given birth, maternal hair samples were collected during home visits. When infants were six months old, mothers reported on their infant's temperament. Although hierarchical regression analyses revealed no associations between prenatal COVID-19 psychological stress and hair cortisol during the COVID-19 outbreak, SES proved to be a moderator in this association. Only pregnant women with higher levels of SES, not lower levels, showed a positive association between work-related and social support-related COVID-19 worries and hair cortisol. Finally, prenatal hair cortisol was not associated with later infant temperamental negative affectivity and orienting/regulation. Although the COVID-19 outbreak proved to be a major psychological stressor worldwide, the physiological impact of the crisis might be different for pregnant women with higher SES as compared to lower SES.

Bruinhof N ，Vacaru SV ，van den Heuvel MI ，de Weerth C ，Beijers R ... -  《-》

Maternal cortisol output in pregnancy and newborn telomere length: Evidence for sex-specific effects.

Newborn telomere length is a potential biomarker of the effects of maternal-fetal processes on offspring long-term health. A number of maternal psychosocial and environmental factors in pregnancy (e.g., stress, health, socioeconomic status) have been associated with shortened telomere length at birth. The physiological mechanisms responsible for potential effects of maternal factors on newborn telomere length have yet to be identified. Indirect evidence suggests that disruptions in maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning in pregnancy may be involved. Studies are needed that test whether maternal HPA axis functioning in pregnancy is associated with newborn telomere length. This study examined whether maternal HPA axis functioning across pregnancy, reflected in hair cortisol collected within one week after delivery, predicted newborn telomere length assessed from leukocyte cord blood collected at birth among 93 sociodemographically diverse mother-infant dyads. We further tested whether associations between maternal hair cortisol and newborn telomere length differed by infant sex, given documented sex differences in prenatal environmental exposure effects on offspring health, patterns of cortisol exposure during gestation, and telomere biology across the lifespan. In a multi-group structural equation modeling analysis that accounted for cortisol exposures across trimesters, maternal cortisol levels in pregnancy were not associated with newborn telomere length in the sample as a whole. However, significant sex differences emerged, with a significant positive association among females and a lack of a significant association among males. In addition, analyses revealed that cortisol levels were higher across trimesters among mothers of male infants than mothers of female infants. The results suggest that functioning of the maternal HPA axis in pregnancy may differ by fetal sex and have sex-specific effects on newborn telomere biology. These findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms by which maternal psychosocial and environmental exposures influence newborn telomere length and for elucidating mechanisms contributing to sex disparities in health.

Bosquet Enlow M ，Sideridis G ，Bollati V ，Hoxha M ，Hacker MR ，Wright RJ ... -  《-》

Associations among maternal socioeconomic status in childhood and pregnancy and hair cortisol in pregnancy.

Dysregulation of the maternal-fetal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) has been hypothesized to negatively influence various offspring physical and mental health outcomes. Limited data suggest that low maternal socioeconomic status (SES) in pregnancy may disrupt maternal HPAA functioning. Research is needed that examines how maternal SES in childhood may influence maternal HPAA functioning in pregnancy, given evidence that early life adversity can have persistent effects on physiological stress reactivity. In a sample of 343 sociodemographically diverse women, we tested whether indices of life course SES were associated with HPAA functioning across pregnancy reflected in hair cortisol collected within one week after delivery. Mothers were asked whether their parent(s) owned their home across three developmental periods, from birth through adolescence, as an indicator of their childhood SES. Measures of maternal SES in pregnancy included maternal educational attainment, annual household income, and current homeownership. Analyses revealed that indicators of lower maternal SES in childhood and in pregnancy were associated with higher cortisol levels during each trimester. In analyses adjusted for maternal race/ethnicity, pre-pregnancy body mass index, smoking in pregnancy, use of inhaled and topical corticosteroids, and mode of delivery, each indicator of maternal SES in pregnancy fully mediated maternal childhood SES effects on maternal hair cortisol levels in pregnancy. This is the first study to show an association between maternal life course SES and hair cortisol in pregnancy. The results suggest that maternal SES, starting in childhood, may have intergenerational consequences via disruption to the maternal-fetal HPAA in pregnancy. These findings have implications for elucidating mechanisms contributing to health disparities among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations.

Bosquet Enlow M ，Sideridis G ，Chiu YM ，Nentin F ，Howell EA ，Le Grand BA ，Wright RJ ... -  《-》

Maternal hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system activity and stress during pregnancy: Effects on gestational age and infant's anthropometric measures at birth.

Prenatal maternal stress might be a risk for the developing fetus and may have long-lasting effects on child and adult vulnerability to somatic and psychiatric disease. Over-exposure of the unborn to excess glucocorticoids and subsequent alteration of fetal development is hypothesized to be one of the key mechanisms linking prenatal stress with negative child outcome. In this prospective longitudinal study, mothers-to-be (n = 405) in late pregnancy (36.8 ± 1.9 weeks of gestational age) and their singleton neonates were studied. We investigated the impact of different prenatal stress indices derived from six stress variables (perceived stress, specific prenatal worries, negative life events, symptoms of depression, trait anxiety, neuroticism) and diurnal maternal saliva cortisol secretion on gestational age and anthropometric measures at birth. Maternal prenatal distress during late gestation was associated with significant reduction in birth weight (-217 g; p = .005), birth length (-1.2 cm; p = .005) and head circumference (-0.8 cm; p = .001). Prenatal stress was modestly but significantly associated with altered diurnal cortisol pattern (flattened cortisol decline and higher evening cortisol), which in turn was significantly related to reduced length of gestation. No evidence for a profound interaction between maternal cortisol level in late pregnancy and infant's anthropometric measures at birth (i.e., birth weight, length, head circumference) was found. Prenatal stress is associated with flattened circadian saliva cortisol profiles and reduced infant's anthropometric measures at birth. HPA system activity during pregnancy may be related to low gestational age. The effect of prenatal stress might be partly mediated by maternal-placental-fetal neuroendocrine mechanisms especially the dysregulation of diurnal cortisol profile.

Gilles M ，Otto H ，Wolf IAC ，Scharnholz B ，Peus V ，Schredl M ，Sütterlin MW ，Witt SH ，Rietschel M ，Laucht M ，Deuschle M ... -  《-》

Prenatal maternal psychopathology and stress and offspring HPA axis function at 6 years.

Intrauterine exposures such as maternal psychopathology and stress are known to influence the physical and mental health of the offspring. One of the proposed pathways underlying these associations is dysregulated hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity in the offspring. This study examined the relation of perinatal maternal symptoms of psychopathology and stress with offspring HPA axis activity at 6 years as measured by hair cortisol and cortisone concentrations. The study was part of the population-based Generation R Study, a prospective population-based cohort from fetal life onwards. 2546 children and their mothers formed the study population. Perinatal maternal psychopathology and stress were assessed by questionnaires in the second and third trimester. Principal components for both psychopathology and stress were created to reduce the number of explanatory variables. Child hair samples for cortisol and cortisone measurements were collected at the age of 6. Linear regression analysis, adjusted for covariates, was used to examine associations between maternal psychopathology and stress and child hair cortisol and cortisone levels. The maternal psychopathology principal component was associated with higher child hair cortisone (adjusted B = 0.24, 95%CI 0.08;0.40, p-value < 0.01). Effect estimates of the individual dimensions ranged from 0.97 (95%CI 0.21;1.73, p-value = 0.01) for interpersonal sensitivity to 1.67 (95%CI 0.86;2.47, p-value < 0.01) for paranoid ideation. In addition, children exposed to intrauterine stress, as measured by the principal component, had higher hair cortisone levels (adjusted B = 0.54, 95%CI 0.21;0.88, p-value < 0.01). Exposure to maternal psychopathology and stress was not associated with offspring hair cortisol. Stratification by child sex resulted in associations between maternal symptoms of psychopathology during pregnancy and child hair cortisone levels in boys and associations between maternal symptoms of stress during pregnancy and child hair cortisone levels in girls. Our results suggest that maternal psychopathology and stress during pregnancy are associated with long-term HPA axis activity of the offspring. The association of maternal psychopathology and stress during pregnancy with offspring hair cortisone levels is a novel finding. Future studies should examine whether these psychophysiological differences between exposed and non-exposed children underlie offspring morbidity associated with maternal psychopathology and stress during pregnancy.

Molenaar NM ，Tiemeier H ，van Rossum EFC ，Hillegers MHJ ，Bockting CLH ，Hoogendijk WJG ，van den Akker EL ，Lambregtse-van den Berg MP ，El Marroun H ... -  《-》