ArticleChild development
Prenatal Maternal Stress Predicts Methylation of Genes Regulating the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical System in Mothers and Newborns in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Article in Child development. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 100 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
100 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 224 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neurobiological insights into perinatal depression: a multi-dimensional integration of brain structure, function, and metabolism.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Aberrant Epigenomic Modulation of Glucocorticoid Receptor Gene (NR3C1) in Early Life Stress and Major Depressive Disorder Correlation: Systematic Review and Quantitative Evidence Synthesis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Pooled it
- Epigenetic changes produced in women victims of intimate partner violence: A systematic review.Women's health (London, England)Pooled it
- Longitudinal DNA methylation in parent-infant pairs impacted by intergenerational social adversity: An RCT of the Michigan Model of Infant Mental Health Home Visiting.Brain and behavior · 2024Trial
- Effects of improved on-farm crop storage on DNA methylation of mothers and their infants: evidence from a randomized controlled trial in Kenya.Clinical epigenetics · 2024Trial
- Article
- Early Life Stress and Adversity in Children: Neuroendocrine Mechanisms, Epigenetic Regulation, and Lifespan Developmental Outcomes-A Narrative Review.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Resilience and brain health in global populations.Nature medicine · 2025Review
- To better combat disease, understand what makes people resilient.Nature medicine · 2025Article
- Association between maternal perceived stress during pregnancy and offspring DNA methylation changes in HPA axis genes at birth in the ECHO Consortium.Environmental epigenetics · 2025Article
- Prenatal exposure to genocide and subsequent adverse childhood events are associated with DNA methylation of SLC6A4, BDNF, and PRDM8 in early adulthood in Rwanda.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Review
- Brain structural and functional outcomes in the offspring of women experiencing psychological distress during pregnancy.Molecular psychiatry · 2024Review
- Role of Epigenetic Modification in the Intergeneration Transmission of War Trauma.Indian journal of clinical biochemistry : IJCB · 2024Review
- Associations of maternal stress, gene expression, and newborn birthweight in the Democratic Republic of Congo.American journal of biological anthropology · 2024Article
- A preliminary investigation of epigenome-wide DNA methylation and temperament during infancy.Developmental psychobiology · 2024Article
- Abnormal DNA methylation within HPA-axis genes years after paediatric critical illness.Clinical epigenetics · 2024Article
- Epigenetics of prenatal stress in humans: the current research landscape.Clinical epigenetics · 2024Review
- Differential impact of prenatal PTSD symptoms and preconception trauma exposure on placentalStress (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2024Article
- Prenatal maternal stress is associated with site-specific and age acceleration changes in maternal and newborn DNA methylation.Epigenetics · 2023Article
40 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Exposure to stress early in life permanently shapes activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis and the brain. Prenatally, glucocorticoids pass through the placenta to the fetus with postnatal impacts on brain development, birth weight (BW), and HPA axis functioning. Little is known about the biological mechanisms by which prenatal stress affects postnatal functioning. This study addresses this gap by examining the effect of chronic stress and traumatic war-related stress on epigenetic changes in four key genes regulating the HPA axis in neonatal cord blood, placenta, and maternal blood: CRH, CRHBP, NR3C1, and FKBP5. Participants were 24 mother-newborn dyads in the conflict-ridden region of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. BW data were collected at delivery and maternal interviews were conducted to assess culturally relevant chronic and war-related stressors. Chronic stress and war trauma had widespread effects on HPA axis gene methylation, with significant effects observed at transcription factor binding (TFB) sites in all target genes tested. Some changes in methylation were unique to chronic or war stress, whereas others were observed across both stressor types. Moreover, stress exposures impacted maternal and fetal tissues differently, supporting theoretical models that stress impacts vary according to life phase. Methylation in several NR3C1 and CRH CpG sites, all located at TFB sites, was associated with BW. These findings suggest that prenatal stress exposure impacts development via epigenetic changes in HPA axis genes.
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