ArticleTranslational psychiatry2021
Genome-wide gene expression changes in postpartum depression point towards an altered immune landscape.
Article in Translational psychiatry, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Epigenetic aging and DNA methylation biomarker changes following ketamine treatment in patients with MDD and PTSD: a pilot study.Translational psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Peripheral Blood Transcriptomic Features Distinguishing Postpartum Depression from Major Depressive Disorder and Healthy Postpartum Controls.International journal of women's health · 2026Article
- Progress and challenges in exploring the pathogenesis of depressive disorders via RNA sequencing.Frontiers in genetics · 2026Review
- The fourth trimester and challenges for the lupus patient.EULAR rheumatology open · 2025Review
- Differentially expressed transcripts associated with depressive symptoms during pregnancy and postpartum.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Lipidomic and transcriptomic profiling reveal alterations in the coexistence of gestational diabetes mellitus and preeclampsia impacting maternal and neonatal outcomes.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Association Between the Dietary Inflammatory Index and Depression in Mid-Pregnancy: Mediating Effect of Sleep Quality.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Blood transcriptomic signatures associated with depression, or the risk for depression, in pregnant women from the Psychiatry Research And Motherhood - Depression (PRAM-D) study.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Conventional and new immunotherapies for immune system dysregulation in postpartum mood disorders: comparisons to immune system dysregulations in bipolar disorder, major depression, and postpartum autoimmune thyroid disease.Expert review of clinical immunology · 2025Review
- Supplementary approaches to perinatal depression: a review of pathogenesis, herbal interventions, and dietary supplements.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Review
- Association of estrogen receptor single nucleotide polymorphisms and perinatal depression.PloS one · 2025Article
- Genetical effects of sleep traits on postpartum depression: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- Call For Action: The Obstetrician's Role In Peripartum Mental Health.Journal of obstetrics and gynaecology of India · 2024Review
- Estradiol and progesterone from pregnancy to postpartum: a longitudinal latent class analysis.Frontiers in global women's health · 2024Article
- Intrinsically dysregulated cellular stress signaling genes and gene networks in postpartum depression.Molecular psychiatry · 2023Article
- A Common Genetic Factor Underlies Genetic Risk for Gynaecological and Reproductive Disorders and Is Correlated with Risk to Depression.Neuroendocrinology · 2023Article
- Post-partum depression: From clinical understanding to preclinical assessments.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Review
- Familial risk of postpartum depression.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2022Article
- Birth, love, and fear: Physiological networks from pregnancy to parenthood.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2022Review
- Transcriptome-wide association study for postpartum depression implicates altered B-cell activation and insulin resistance.Molecular psychiatry · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Maternal postpartum depression (PPD) is a significant public health concern due to the severe negative impact on maternal and child health and well-being. In this study, we aimed to identify genes associated with PPD. To do this, we investigated genome-wide gene expression profiles of pregnant women during their third trimester of pregnancy and tested the association of gene expression with perinatal depressive symptoms. A total of 137 women from a cohort from the University of North Carolina, USA were assessed. The main phenotypes analysed were Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) scores at 2 months postpartum and PPD (binary yes/no) based on an EPDS cutoff of 10. Illumina NextSeq500/550 transcriptomic sequencing from whole blood was analysed using the edgeR package. We identified 71 genes significantly associated with postpartum depression scores at 2 months, after correction for multiple testing at 5% FDR. These included several interesting candidates including TNFRSF17, previously reported to be significantly upregulated in women with PPD and MMP8, a matrix metalloproteinase gene, associated with depression in a genome-wide association study. Functional annotation of differentially expressed genes revealed an enrichment of immune response-related biological processes. Additional analysis of genes associated with changes in depressive symptoms from recruitment to 2 months postpartum identified 66 genes significant at an FDR of 5%. Of these genes, 33 genes were also associated with depressive symptoms at 2 months postpartum. Comparing the results with previous studies, we observed that 15.4% of genes associated with PPD in this study overlapped with 700 core maternal genes that showed significant gene expression changes across multiple brain regions (P = 7.9e-05) and 29-53% of the genes were also associated with estradiol changes in a pharmacological model of depression (P values range = 1.2e-4-2.1e-14). In conclusion, we identified novel genes and validated genes previously associated with oestrogen sensitivity in PPD. These results point towards the role of an altered immune transcriptomic landscape as a vulnerability factor for PPD.
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