ArticleDevelopmental psychobiology2023
Maternal distress, DNA methylation, and fetal programing of stress physiology in Brazilian mother-infant pairs.
Article in Developmental psychobiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 16 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- A systematic review of associations between hormone levels in hair and peripartum depression.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Pooled it
- Research trend of epigenetics and depression: adolescents' research needs to strengthen.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Pooled it
- An epigenetic framework for understanding contextual influences on neural and socio-emotional development: Narrative review and case-study of the oxytocin receptor.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Review
- Stress-induced epigenome changes as a risk factor in the onset of mental disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Review
- Oxytocin restores cognitive function and attenuates neuroinflammation in chronic sleep-deprived aged rats.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Depression and Anxiety During Pregnancy in Mexican Women: Prevalence and Associated Factors in the OBESO Cohort Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Prenatal maternal life adversity impacts on learning and memory in offspring: implication to transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Prenatal stress increases corticosterone levels in offspring by impairing placental glucocorticoid barrier function.PloS one · 2025Article
- Epigenetic Responses to Nonchemical Stressors: Potential Molecular Links to Perinatal Health Outcomes.Current environmental health reports · 2024Review
- Regulatory T-cell phenotypes in prenatal psychological distress.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2024Article
- Maternal outcomes related to Genetic and epigenetic Variation in the oxytocin system: A scoping review.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Maternal prenatal psychosocial stress is associated with adverse hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPAA) function among infants. Although the biological mechanisms influencing this process remain unknown, altered DNA methylation is considered to be one potential mechanism. We investigated associations between maternal prenatal psychological distress, infant salivary DNA methylation, and stress physiology at 12 months. Mother's distress was measured via depression and anxiety in early and late pregnancy in a cohort of 80 pregnant adolescents. Maternal hair cortisol was collected during pregnancy. Saliva samples were collected from infants at 12 months to quantify DNA methylation of three stress-related genes (FKBP5, NR3C1, OXTR) (n = 62) and diurnal cortisol (n = 29). Multivariable linear regression was used to test for associations between prenatal psychological distress, and infant DNA methylation and cortisol. Hair cortisol concentrations in late pregnancy were negatively associated with two sites of FKBP5 (site 1: B = -22.33, p = .003; site 2: B = -15.60, p = .012). Infants of mothers with elevated anxiety symptoms in late pregnancy had lower levels of OXTR2 CpG2 methylation (B = -2.17, p = .03) and higher evening salivary cortisol (B = 0.41, p = .03). Furthermore, OXTR2 methylation was inversely associated with evening cortisol (B = -0.14, p-value ≤ .001). Our results are, to our knowledge, the first evidence that the methylation of the oxytocin receptor may contribute to the regulation of HPAA during infancy.
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