Association Between Maternal-Perceived Psychological Stress and Fetal Telomere Length.
South Med J
; 109(12): 767-772, 2016 12.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-27911970
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
Our study aimed to investigate the association between maternal-perceived psychological stress and fetal telomere length.METHODS:
We recruited women in labor upon hospital delivery admission. Based on responses to the Perceived Stress Scale, we categorized participants as having "high," "normal," or "low" perceived stress. We collected umbilical cord blood samples (N = 71) and isolated genomic DNA from cord blood leukocytes using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. We used a ratio of relative telomere length derived by telomere-to-single-copy gene ratio (T/S ratio). We applied analysis of variance and bootstrapping statistical procedures.RESULTS:
Sixteen (22.5%) women were classified as having low perceived stress, 42 (59.2%) were classified as having normal perceived stress, and 13 (18.3%) were classified as having high perceived stress. Fetal telomere length differed significantly across the three stress groups in a dose-response pattern (T/S ratio of those with low perceived stress was greater than those with normal perceived stress, which was greater than those with high perceived stress [P < 0.05]).CONCLUSIONS:
Our findings support our hypothesis that maternal-perceived psychological stress during pregnancy is associated with shorter fetal telomere length and suggest maternal stress as a possible marker for early intrauterine programming for accelerated chromosomal aging.
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Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Stress, Psychological
/
Labor, Obstetric
/
Telomere
/
Fetal Blood
/
Obstetric Labor Complications
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Newborn
/
Pregnancy
Language:
En
Journal:
South Med J
Year:
2016
Document type:
Article