TY - JOUR
T1 - Sex differences in effects of maternal risk and protective factors in childhood and pregnancy on newborn telomere length
AU - Bosquet Enlow, Michelle
AU - Bollati, Valentina
AU - Sideridis, Georgios
AU - Flom, Julie D.
AU - Hoxha, Mirjam
AU - Hacker, Michele R.
AU - Wright, Rosalind J.
N1 - Funding Information:
The 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 - 2018/9
Y1 - 2018/9
N2 - Little research has examined determinants of newborn telomere length, a potential biomarker of lifetime disease risk impacted by prenatal exposures. No study has examined whether maternal exposures in childhood influence newborn telomere length or whether there are sex differences in the maternal factors that influence newborn telomere length. We tested whether a range of maternal risk and protective factors in childhood and pregnancy were associated with newborn telomere length among 151 sociodemographically diverse mother-infant dyads. We further examined whether the pattern of associations differed by infant sex. Newborn telomere length was assessed from cord blood collected at birth. Risk/protective factors included maternal health (smoking, body mass index), socioeconomic status (education, income), stress exposures, and mental health (depressive and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms) in pregnancy as well as maternal experiences of abuse (physical, emotional, sexual) and familial emotional support in childhood. When examined within the whole sample, only maternal smoking in pregnancy and familial emotional support in childhood emerged as significant predictors of newborn telomere length. Male and female newborns differed in their pattern of associations between the predictors and telomere length. Among males, maternal smoking, higher body mass index, and elevated depressive symptoms in pregnancy and maternal sexual abuse in childhood were associated with shorter newborn telomere length; higher maternal educational attainment and household income in pregnancy and greater maternal familial emotional support in childhood were associated with longer newborn telomere length. Together, these factors accounted for 34% of the variance in male newborn telomere length. None of the risk/protective factors were associated with female newborn telomere length. The results suggest that male fetuses are particularly susceptible to maternal exposure effects on newborn telomere length. These findings have implications for elucidating mechanisms contributing to sex disparities in health.
AB - Little research has examined determinants of newborn telomere length, a potential biomarker of lifetime disease risk impacted by prenatal exposures. No study has examined whether maternal exposures in childhood influence newborn telomere length or whether there are sex differences in the maternal factors that influence newborn telomere length. We tested whether a range of maternal risk and protective factors in childhood and pregnancy were associated with newborn telomere length among 151 sociodemographically diverse mother-infant dyads. We further examined whether the pattern of associations differed by infant sex. Newborn telomere length was assessed from cord blood collected at birth. Risk/protective factors included maternal health (smoking, body mass index), socioeconomic status (education, income), stress exposures, and mental health (depressive and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms) in pregnancy as well as maternal experiences of abuse (physical, emotional, sexual) and familial emotional support in childhood. When examined within the whole sample, only maternal smoking in pregnancy and familial emotional support in childhood emerged as significant predictors of newborn telomere length. Male and female newborns differed in their pattern of associations between the predictors and telomere length. Among males, maternal smoking, higher body mass index, and elevated depressive symptoms in pregnancy and maternal sexual abuse in childhood were associated with shorter newborn telomere length; higher maternal educational attainment and household income in pregnancy and greater maternal familial emotional support in childhood were associated with longer newborn telomere length. Together, these factors accounted for 34% of the variance in male newborn telomere length. None of the risk/protective factors were associated with female newborn telomere length. The results suggest that male fetuses are particularly susceptible to maternal exposure effects on newborn telomere length. These findings have implications for elucidating mechanisms contributing to sex disparities in health.
KW - Cord blood
KW - Maternal exposures
KW - Newborn
KW - Sex differences
KW - Telomere length
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85047266564&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.05.025
DO - 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.05.025
M3 - Article
C2 - 29803183
AN - SCOPUS:85047266564
SN - 0306-4530
VL - 95
SP - 74
EP - 85
JO - Psychoneuroendocrinology
JF - Psychoneuroendocrinology
ER -