Perinatal exposures and adolescence overweight: The role of shared maternal-offspring pathways.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Early life exposures affect offspring health across the life-course. We aimed to examine whether prevalent perinatal exposures and obstetric complications are independently associated with offspring overweight in adolescence. We then assessed whether shared maternal-offspring pathways drive the association of perinatal exposures with offspring overweight. METHODS: Using data from the Jerusalem Perinatal Study birth cohort, two perinatal scores were constructed: obstetric complications (OC) and prevalent perinatal exposures (PPE) scores. PPE score, generated by principal component analysis, included three primary components. Logistic regressions were used to assess associations of scores with offspring overweight, with and without adjustment for maternal life-course survival. RESULTS: OC and PPE scores were independently associated with offspring overweight (OROC = 1.15, 95%CI:1.07,1.25; ORPPE1- SEP and lifestyle = 0.85, 95%CI:0.79,0.91; ORPPE2- Maternal body size = 1.20, 95%CI: 1.13,1.28; ORPPE3-Fetal growth = 1.18, 95%CI:1.11,1.26). Maternal survival was associated with offspring overweight (OR = 1.38, 95%CI:1.08,1.76), yet introducing PPE score to the same model attenuated this association (OR = 1.16, 95%CI:0.90, 1.49). When OC score and maternal survival were included in the same model, their associations with offspring overweight remained unchanged. CONCLUSIONS: Mother-offspring shared factors, captured by maternal life-course survival, underlie the effect of prevalent perinatal exposures on offspring overweight. However, the effect of obstetric complications was independent, highlighting the contribution of additional pathways.

Familial aggregation of the aging process: biological age measured in young adult offspring as a predictor of parental mortality.

Measures of biological age (BA) integrate information across organ systems to quantify "biological aging," i.e., inter-individual differences in aging-related health decline. While longevity and lifespan aggregate in families, reflecting transmission of genes and environments across generations, little is known about intergenerational continuity of biological aging or the extent to which this continuity may be modified by environmental factors. Using data from the Jerusalem Perinatal Study (JPS), we tested if differences in offspring BA were related to mortality in their parents. We measured BA using biomarker data collected from 1473 offspring during clinical exams in 2007-2009, at age 32 ± 1.1. Parental mortality was obtained from population registry data for the years 2004-2016. We fitted parametric survival models to investigate the associations between offspring BA and parental all-cause and cause-specific mortality. We explored potential differences in these relationships by socioeconomic position (SEP) and offspring sex. Participants' BAs widely varied (SD = 6.95). Among those measured to be biologically older, parents had increased all-cause mortality (HR = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.13), diabetes mortality (HR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.08, 1.30), and cancer mortality (HR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.13). The association with all-cause mortality was stronger for families with low compared with high SEP (Pinteraction = 0.04) and for daughters as compared to sons (Pinteraction < 0.001). Using a clinical-biomarker-based BA estimate, observable by young adulthood prior to the onset of aging-related diseases, we demonstrate intergenerational continuity of the aging process. Furthermore, variation in this familial aggregation according to household socioeconomic position (SEP) at offspring birth and between families of sons and daughters proposes that the environment alters individuals' aging trajectory set by their parents.

Independent associations of inter-spousal gaps in age and education with long-term mortality and cancer survival: The Jerusalem Perinatal Study 1964-2016.

PURPOSE: To identify factors responsible for variation in health among married individuals, we investigated the independent associations of gaps in spousal age and education (or "heterogamy") with all-cause and cause-specific mortality as well as with survival of cancer patients. METHODS: Using over four decades of follow-up data on 36,717 couples from Jerusalem (1964-2016), we compared heterogamous with homogamous couples. RESULTS: Having a less educated spouse was associated with an increased risk for several outcomes in both genders, such as all-cause mortality in males (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.18, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.12, 1.25) and in females (HR = 1.11, CI: 1.01, 1.22). Having a more educated spouse was associated with decreased all-cause mortality in males (HR = 0.93, CI: 0.87, 0.99), but not in females. Having an older spouse was detrimental for health of both genders. For example, increased all-cause mortality was seen in men (HR = 1.22, CI: 1.10, 1.34) and in women (HR = 1.10, CI: 1.02, 1.19). A younger spouse was beneficial for some of the outcomes in males, such as decreased cancer-specific mortality (HR = 0.88, CI: 0.78, 0.99), but not in females. CONCLUSIONS: Spousal gaps in education and age may be independently associated with health outcomes. The observed relationships may be driven by combined amounts of marital strain as well as shared spousal resources (such as knowledge or income) depending on gender.

Chronic Progressive Neurodegeneration in a Transgenic Mouse Model of Prion Disease.

Neurodegenerative diseases present pathologically with progressive structural destruction of neurons and accumulation of mis-folded proteins specific for each condition leading to brain atrophy and functional disability. Many animal models exert deposition of pathogenic proteins without an accompanying neurodegeneration pattern. The lack of a comprehensive model hinders efforts to develop treatment. We performed longitudinal quantification of cellular, neuronal and synaptic density, as well as of neurogenesis in brains of mice mimicking for genetic Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease as compared to age-matched wild-type mice. Mice exhibited a neurodegenerative process of progressive reduction in cortical neurons and synapses starting at age of 4-6 months, in accord with neurologic disability. This was accompanied by significant decrease in subventricular/subependymal zone neurogenesis. Although increased hippocampal neurogenesis was detected in mice, a neurodegenerative process of CA1 and CA3 regions associated with impaired hippocampal-dependent memory function was observed. In conclusion, mice exhibit pathological neurodegeneration concomitant with neurological disease progression, indicating these mice can serve as a model for neurodegenerative diseases.