Prenatal exposure to stress linked to accelerated cell aging

ScienceDaily (Aug. 1, 2011) — Young adults whose mothers experienced psychological trauma during their pregnancies show signs of accelerated aging, a UC Irvine-led study found.

The researchers discovered that this prenatal exposure to stress affected the development of chromosome regions that control cell aging processes. The study results, which appear online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, point to the importance of maternal health and well-being during pregnancy.

"Our previous research on prenatal stress exposure has shown its effects on long-term metabolic, immune, endocrine and cognitive function," said the paper's lead author, Dr. Pathik D. Wadhwa, UCI professor of psychiatry & human behavior, obstetrics & gynecology, pediatrics, and epidemiology. "But this is the first to show the impact of prenatal stress on cell aging in humans, and it sheds light on an important biological pathway underlying the developmental origins of adult disease risk."

Study participants were healthy 25-year-old women and men born to mothers who had, during pregnancy, experienced psychosocial stress in the form of major, traumatic life events, such as the death or sudden severe illness of an immediate family member. Blood tests revealed that subjects' white blood cells had aged an average of three and a half more years -- five among women -- than those of individuals whose mothers had uneventful pregnancies.

This hastened aging was evidenced by the shortened length of telomeres, repetitive stretches of DNA-protein complexes that cap and protect the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres maintain chromosomal stability and control the processes that underlie cellular aging by functioning as a "clock" that regulates how many times a cell can divide. The shorter the telomere strands, the faster the cell ages.

The telomere maintenance system plays an important role in human disease and longevity, and scientists now know that telomere length is correlated to the risk of disease and premature mortality in humans. Truncated telomeres -- such as those found in the white blood cells of study participants -- can, for example, be a precursor to diabetes, cancer and coronary heart disease.

"These results indicate that stress exposure in intrauterine life is a significant predictor of adult telomere length -- even after accounting for other established prenatal and postnatal influences on telomere length," said Sonja Entringer, UCI assistant professor of pediatrics and first author on the paper.

A rapidly emerging body of human and animal research indicates that intrauterine conditions play an important role not only in all aspects of fetal development and health across gestation and birth, but also in a wide range of physical and mental health outcomes over an individual's entire lifespan.

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Elissa S. Epel and Jue Lin of UC San Francisco and German researchers Robert Kumsta, Dirk H. Hellhammer and Stefan Wust contributed to the study, which was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Barney & Barbro Fund.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by University of California - Irvine, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Prenatal exposure to certain antidepressants may modestly increase risk of autism spectrum disorders, study suggests

ScienceDaily (July 5, 2011) — Prenatal exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, especially during the first trimester, is associated with a modest increase the risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder, according to a report published Online First in the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

"The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has increased over recent years," the authors write as background information in the article. "Use of antidepressant medications during pregnancy also shows a secular increase in recent decades, prompting concerns that prenatal exposure may contribute to increased risk of ASD."

To evaluate if prenatal exposure to antidepressants, including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), is associated with an increase in ASD, Lisa A. Croen, Ph.D., of Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Oakland, and colleagues examined medical records for children drawn from the Childhood Autism Perinatal Study conducted by Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in Northern California. The authors included 298 children with ASD (case group) and their mothers, and 1,507 control children and their mothers in the study.

Twenty mothers of children in the case group (6.7 percent) and 50 mothers of children in the control group (3.3 percent) had at least one prescription for an antidepressant in the year prior to the birth of the study child. Of the 20 case mothers who were prescribed antidepressants, 13 (65 percent) were prescribed SSRIs only, two (10 percent) were prescribed an SSRI in combination with another antidepressant and five (25 percent) were prescribed one or more non-SSRI antidepressants only. Of the 50 control mothers who were prescribed an antidepressant, 25 (50 percent) were prescribed SSRIs only, nine (18 percent) were prescribed an SSRI in combination with another antidepressant and 16 (32 percent) were prescribed one or more non-SSRI antidepressants only.

After adjusting for maternal and birth factors, mothers of children with ASD were twice as likely to have at least one antidepressant prescription in the year prior to delivery. When compared with women with no antidepressant prescription during the study period, those with a prescription for a SSRI were more than twice as likely to have a child later diagnosed with ASD. This association was not seen for the small group of women who were prescribed a non-SSRI antidepressant only.

Additionally, after adjustment for a history of depression during the year prior to delivery, SSRI exposure during the first trimester remained significantly associated with risk of ASD, as was a history of SSRI exposure at any point during the year prior to delivery. Conversely, no association was seen between risk of ASD and the indication for treatment (mother having a history of depression or any mental health disorder) for the year prior to delivery.

"Although the number of children exposed prenatally to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in this population was low, results suggest that exposure, especially during the first trimester, may modestly increase the risk of ASD," the authors conclude. "We recommend that our findings be considered as preliminary and treated with caution, pending results from further studies designed to address the very complex question of whether prenatal exposure to SSRIs may be etiologically linked to later diagnoses of ASDs in offspring."

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by JAMA and Archives Journals.

Journal Reference:

Lisa A. Croen; Judith K. Grether; Cathleen K. Yoshida; Roxana Odouli; Victoria Hendrick. Antidepressant Use During Pregnancy and Childhood Autism Spectrum Disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 2011; DOI: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2011.73

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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