ArticlePloS one2018
From early stress to 12-month development in very preterm infants: Preliminary findings on epigenetic mechanisms and brain growth.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 75 citations in OpenAlex.
- Genetic Influences on the Developing Young Brain and Risk for Neuropsychiatric Disorders.Biological psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Perinatal stress and methylation of theEpigenetics · 2022Pooled it
- The role of prenatal and perinatal factors in eating disorders: a systematic review.Archives of women's mental health · 2021Pooled it
- Adverse childhood experiences, epigenetics and telomere length variation in childhood and beyond: a systematic review of the literature.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2020Pooled it
- Hidden pandemic: COVID-19-related stress, SLC6A4 methylation, and infants' temperament at 3 months.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Early maternal care restores LINE-1 methylation and enhances neurodevelopment in preterm infants.BMC medicine · 2021Trial
- Fathers, not mothers: the male singing voice and the preterm brain's response to song in the NICU.Pediatric research · 2026Article
- Subclinical but significant: A multi-informant comparative study on early socio-emotional difficulties in preterm preschoolers.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2026Article
- Epigenetic consequences of toxic stress in preterm infants and their mothers: protocol for the premature infants, moms, and the social determinants of health-an epigenetic investigation study.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Article
- Prematurity and Epigenetic Regulation ofBiomedicines · 2025Article
- Understanding infant stress in neonatal and pediatric intensive care: a scoping review.Intensive care medicine. Paediatric and neonatal · 2025Review
- Brain age prediction and deviations from normative trajectories in the neonatal connectome.Nature communications · 2024Article
- A longitudinal observational study on the epidemiology of painful procedures and sucrose administration in hospitalized preterm neonates.Paediatric & neonatal pain · 2024Article
- Early life stress modulates the genetic influence on brain structure and cognitive function in children.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Neonatal administration of erythropoietin attenuates cognitive deficits in adult rats following placental insufficiency.Journal of neuroscience research · 2022Article
- Maternal Gestational Diabetes Influences DNA Methylation in the Serotonin System in the Human Placenta.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Sensory stimulation program improves developments of preterm infants in Southwest China: A randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Is Brain-Derived Neurotropic Factor Methylation Involved in the Association Between Prenatal Stress and Maternal Postnatal Anxiety During the COVID-19 Pandemic?Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- DNA Methylation and Allelic Polymorphism at the Dopamine Transporter Promoter Affect Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms in Preschoolers.Child psychiatry and human development · 2021Article
- Research Trends of Follow-Up Care after Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Graduation for Children Born Preterm: A Scoping Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Very preterm (VPT) infants admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are at risk for altered brain growth and less-than-optimal socio-emotional development. Recent research suggests that early NICU-related stress contributes to socio-emotional impairments in VPT infants at 3 months through epigenetic regulation (i.e., DNA methylation) of the serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4). In the present longitudinal study we assessed: (a) the effects of NICU-related stress and SLC6A4 methylation variations from birth to discharge on brain development at term equivalent age (TEA); (b) the association between brain volume at TEA and socio-emotional development (i.e., Personal-Social scale of Griffith Mental Development Scales, GMDS) at 12 months corrected age (CA). Twenty-four infants had complete data at 12-month-age. SLC6A4 methylation was measured at a specific CpG previously associated with NICU-related stress and socio-emotional stress. Findings confirmed that higher NICU-related stress associated with greater increase of SLC6A4 methylation at NICU discharge. Moreover, higher SLC6A4 discharge methylation was associated with reduced anterior temporal lobe (ATL) volume at TEA, which in turn was significantly associated with less-than-optimal GMDS Personal-Social scale score at 12 months CA. The reduced ATL volume at TEA mediated the pathway linking stress-related increase in SLC6A4 methylation at NICU discharge and socio-emotional development at 12 months CA. These findings suggest that early adversity-related epigenetic changes might contribute to the long-lasting programming of socio-emotional development in VPT infants through epigenetic regulation and structural modifications of the developing brain.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.