Department of Psychology, Queens College, CUNY, New York, NY, United States of America.
Department of Psychology, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Jan 29;15(1):e0226605. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0226605. eCollection 2020.
The placenta plays a central role in the epigenetic programming of neurodevelopment by prenatal stress (PS), but this pathway is not fully understood. It difficult to study in humans because the conditions for intense, traumatic PS are almost impossible to create ethically. This study was able to capitalize on a 2012 disaster that hit New York, Superstorm Sandy, to examine the impact of traumatic stress on placental gene expression while also examining normative PS, and compare the two. Of the 303 expectant mothers participating in the Stress in Pregnancy Study, 95 women were pregnant when Superstorm Sandy struck. During their pregnancy, participants completed self-report measures of PS and distress that were combined, using latent profile analysis, into one global indicator of normative PS. Placental tissue was collected at delivery and frozen for storage. RNA expression was assessed for 40 placental genes known to associate with the stress response system and neurodevelopment in offspring. Results showed that normative PS increased expression of just MECP2, HSD11B2, and ZNF507, whereas Superstorm Sandy PS decreased expression of CDKL5, CFL1, DYRK1A, HSD11B2, MAOA, MAOB, NCOR1, and ZNF507. Interaction analyses indicated that Superstorm Sandy PS was associated with decreased gene expression for the low and high PS group for CFL1, DYRK1A, HSD11B2, MAOA, and NCOR1 and increased expression for the moderate PS group for FOXP1, NR3C1, and NR3C2. This study supports the idea that a moderate amount of normative PS may buffer the impact of traumatic PS, in this case caused by Superstorm Sandy, on placental gene expression, which suggests that the placenta itself mirrors the organism's ability to develop an epigenetic resilience to, and inoculation from, stress.
胎盘在产前应激（PS）对神经发育的表观遗传编程中起着核心作用，但这一途径尚未完全被理解。由于很难在伦理上创造出强烈的、创伤性的 PS 条件，因此很难在人类中进行研究。本研究利用 2012 年袭击纽约的超级风暴桑迪（Superstorm Sandy）这一灾难，来研究创伤性应激对胎盘基因表达的影响，同时也研究了正常的 PS，并对两者进行了比较。在参与妊娠压力研究的 303 位孕妇中，有 95 位孕妇在超级风暴桑迪来袭时怀孕。在怀孕期间，参与者完成了 PS 和困扰的自我报告测量，这些测量使用潜在剖面分析结合起来，成为一个正常 PS 的整体指标。分娩时采集胎盘组织并冷冻储存。评估了 40 个已知与后代应激反应系统和神经发育相关的胎盘基因的 RNA 表达。结果表明，正常 PS 仅增加了 MECP2、HSD11B2 和 ZNF507 的表达，而超级风暴桑迪 PS 则降低了 CDKL5、CFL1、DYRK1A、HSD11B2、MAOA、MAOB、NCOR1 和 ZNF507 的表达。交互分析表明，超级风暴桑迪 PS 与低 PS 组和高 PS 组的 CFL1、DYRK1A、HSD11B2、MAOA 和 NCOR1 的基因表达降低以及中 PS 组的 FOXP1、NR3C1 和 NR3C2 的基因表达增加有关。这项研究支持了这样一种观点，即适量的正常 PS 可能会缓冲创伤性 PS 的影响，在这种情况下，创伤性 PS 是由超级风暴桑迪引起的，对胎盘基因表达的影响，这表明胎盘本身反映了机体对压力产生表观遗传弹性和免疫的能力。
