ArticlePsychological medicine2016
Maternal prenatal depression is associated with decreased placental expression of the imprinted gene PEG3.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 30 papers.
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30 citing papers in PubMed, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trial
- Sex differences in the risk of autistic-related traits in toddlers born to mothers with perinatal depression: Evidence from human cohort and mouse study.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Investigating the association between pain and psychological vulnerabilities and postpartum depression.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Mom genes and dad genes: genomic imprinting in the regulation of social behaviors.Epigenomics · 2025Review
- Integrative Analysis of the Impact of Prenatal Depression on the Newborn Intestinal Microbiota.Central nervous system agents in medicinal chemistry · 2025Article
- The neurobiology of parenting and infant-evoked aggression.Physiological reviews · 2025Review
- Placenta-derived SOD3 deletion impairs maternal behavior via alterations in FGF/FGFR-prolactin signaling axis.Cell reports · 2024Article
- Human placental lactogen (human chorionic somatomammotropin) and oxytocin during pregnancy: Individual patterns and associations with maternal-fetal attachment, anxiety, and depression.Hormones and behavior · 2024Article
- Deficiency of the paternally-expressed imprintedFrontiers in neuroscience · 2024Article
- Imprinted genes and the manipulation of parenting in mammals.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2023Review
- Prenatal paternal anxiety symptoms predict child DHEA levels and internalizing symptoms during adrenarche.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Article
- The contribution of imprinted genes to neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders.Translational psychiatry · 2022Review
- In support of the placental programming hypothesis: Placental endocrine insufficiency programs atypical behaviour in mothers and their offspring.Experimental physiology · 2022Review
- Prenatal health behaviours as predictors of human placental lactogen levels.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Article
- Placental endocrine insufficiency programs anxiety, deficits in cognition and atypical social behaviour in offspring.Human molecular genetics · 2021Article
- A potential role for insulin treatment during pregnancy in reducing postpartum psychological distress in maternal obesity: an administrative population health study.BMC women's health · 2021Article
- The Prolactin Family of Hormones as Regulators of Maternal Mood and Behavior.Frontiers in global women's health · 2021Review
- Precision medicine in perinatal depression in light of the human microbiome.Psychopharmacology · 2020Review
- Prenatal symptoms of anxiety and depression associated with sex differences in both maternal perceptions of one year old infant temperament and researcher observed infant characteristics.Journal of affective disorders · 2020Article
- Placental effects on the maternal brain revealed by disrupted placental gene expression in mouse hybrids.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMaternal prenatal stress during pregnancy is associated with fetal growth restriction and adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes, which may be mediated by impaired placental function. Imprinted genes control fetal growth, placental development, adult behaviour (including maternal behaviour) and placental lactogen production. This study examined whether maternal prenatal depression was associated with aberrant placental expression of the imprinted genes paternally expressed gene 3 (PEG3), paternally expressed gene 10 (PEG10), pleckstrin homology-like domain family a member 2 (PHLDA2) and cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1C (CDKN1C), and resulting impaired placental human placental lactogen (hPL) expression.
methodA diagnosis of depression during pregnancy was recorded from Manchester cohort participants' medical notes (n = 75). Queen Charlotte's (n = 40) and My Baby and Me study (MBAM) (n = 81) cohort participants completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale self-rating psychometric questionnaire. Villous trophoblast tissue samples were analysed for gene expression.
resultsIn a pilot study, diagnosed depression during pregnancy was associated with a significant reduction in placental PEG3 expression (41%, p = 0.02). In two further independent cohorts, the Queen Charlotte's and MBAM cohorts, placental PEG3 expression was also inversely associated with maternal depression scores, an association that was significant in male but not female placentas. Finally, hPL expression was significantly decreased in women with clinically diagnosed depression (44%, p < 0.05) and in those with high depression scores (31% and 21%, respectively).
conclusionsThis study provides the first evidence that maternal prenatal depression is associated with changes in the placental expression of PEG3, co-incident with decreased expression of hPL. This aberrant placental gene expression could provide a possible mechanistic explanation for the co-occurrence of maternal depression, fetal growth restriction, impaired maternal behaviour and poorer offspring outcomes.
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