TY - JOUR
T1 - Maternal cortisol output in pregnancy and newborn telomere length
T2 - Evidence for sex-specific effects
AU - Bosquet Enlow, Michelle
AU - Sideridis, Georgios
AU - Bollati, Valentina
AU - Hoxha, Mirjam
AU - Hacker, Michele R.
AU - Wright, Rosalind J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute ( R01HL095606 ; R01HL114396 ), the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development ( R01HD082078 ), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences ( P30ES023515 ), the Boston Children’s Hospital’s Clinical and Translational Research Executive Committee , and the Program for Behavioral Science in the Department of Psychiatry at Boston Children’s Hospital . None of the funding agencies had any role in the study design, the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, the writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of any granting agency.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/4
Y1 - 2019/4
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Cord blood
KW - Hair cortisol
KW - Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
KW - Newborn
KW - Sex differences
KW - Telomere length
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058937064&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.12.222
DO - 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.12.222
M3 - Article
C2 - 30590340
AN - SCOPUS:85058937064
SN - 0306-4530
VL - 102
SP - 225
EP - 235
JO - Psychoneuroendocrinology
JF - Psychoneuroendocrinology
ER -