ArticleEpigenetics2023
Prenatal maternal stress is associated with site-specific and age acceleration changes in maternal and newborn DNA methylation.
Article in Epigenetics, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of Maternal Lifetime Stress on Offspring Biological Aging: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Pooled it
- The impact of adverse childhood experiences on DNA methylation age: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical epigenetics · 2026Pooled it
- Epigenetic fingerprints link early-onset colon and rectal cancer to pesticide exposure.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Maternal epigenetic signatures are associated with small for gestational age births among black women.Epigenetics insights · 2026Article
- Special Issue "Molecular Insights into the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease".International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Distinct maternal DNA methylation associations with gestational age at early and late-mid term pregnancy in a low- and middle-income country: evaluation of biological, genetic, and psychosocial contributors.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Article
- Comprehensive Review of the Impact of Maternal Stress on Fetal Development.Pediatric discovery · 2025Review
- Prenatal exposure to genocide accelerates epigenetic aging in third- and fourth-generation clocks among young adults in Rwanda.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Review
- Postpartum Maternal Stress is Unrelated to the Infant Fecal Microbiome, but is Associated With the Human Milk Microbiome in Exclusively Breastfeeding Mother-Infant Dyads: The Mother-Infant Microbiomes, Behavior, and Ecology Study (MIMBES).American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2025Article
- Epigenetic signatures of intergenerational exposure to violence in three generations of Syrian refugees.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Non-coding 886 (Epigenetics · 2024Review
- Prenatal stress and gestational epigenetic age: No evidence of associations based on a large prospective multi-cohort study.Research square · 2024Article
- Pilot study of relationship between prenatal stress during the COVID-19 pandemic and social-emotional development of 12-month-old children: the mediation effects of home environment.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2024Article
- Going Beyond Childhood and Gender-Based Violence: Epigenetic Modifications and Inheritance.Women's health reports (New Rochelle, N.Y.) · 2024Review
- Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Prenatal maternal stress has a negative impact on child health but the mechanisms through which maternal stress affects child health are unclear. Epigenetic variation, such as DNA methylation, is a likely mechanistic candidate as DNA methylation is sensitive to environmental insults and can regulate long-term changes in gene expression. We recruited 155 mother-newborn dyads in the Democratic Republic of Congo to investigate the effects of maternal stress on DNA methylation in mothers and newborns. We used four measures of maternal stress to capture a range of stressful experiences: general trauma, sexual trauma, war trauma, and chronic stress. We identified differentially methylated positions (DMPs) associated with general trauma, sexual trauma, and war trauma in both mothers and newborns. No DMPs were associated with chronic stress. Sexual trauma was positively associated with epigenetic age acceleration across several epigenetic clocks in mothers. General trauma and war trauma were positively associated with newborn epigenetic age acceleration using the extrinsic epigenetic age clock. We tested the top DMPs for enrichment of DNase I hypersensitive sites (DHS) and found no enrichment in mothers. In newborns, top DMPs associated with war trauma were enriched for DHS in embryonic and foetal cell types. Finally, one of the top DMPs associated with war trauma in newborns also predicted birthweight, completing the cycle from maternal stress to DNA methylation to newborn health outcome. Our results indicate that maternal stress is associated with site-specific changes in DNAm and epigenetic age acceleration in both mothers and newborns.
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Registered trials
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.