Lipner Emily, Murphy Shannon K, Breen Elizabeth C, Cohn Barbara A, Krigbaum Nickilou Y, Cirillo Piera M, Alloy Lauren B, Ellman Lauren M
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Temple University, Weiss Hall, 1701 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, 300 Medical Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2022 Jul;141:105755. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2022.105755. Epub 2022 Mar 30.
Prenatal infection, particularly at mid-gestation, has been associated with various psychopathological outcomes in offspring; however, findings linking prenatal infection to offspring depression outcomes have been mixed. Previous research indicates that it may be the co-occurrence of prenatal adversities (e.g., infection and stress) that are associated with depression outcomes in offspring. Nevertheless, no study to date has investigated whether higher levels of biomarkers linked to prenatal stress (e.g., cortisol) in the presence of infection may account for these outcomes. Participants were drawn from the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS), a prospective, longitudinal study of pregnant women and their offspring. The present study included mother-offspring dyads from the Adolescent Study, a subsample of the CHDS cohort, whose offspring were assessed in adolescence and whose mothers also provided sera to be assayed for cortisol (n = 695). Hierarchical multivariable regressions were conducted to examine whether maternal cortisol during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy interacted with maternal infection to predict increased risk for symptoms of depression in adolescent offspring. There was a significant interaction of second trimester infection and higher cortisol on offspring depression scores during adolescence, controlling for maternal education (p = 0.04). Findings suggest that higher maternal cortisol may sensitize mothers and their offspring to the disruptive influences of infection during mid-pregnancy, conferring greater risk of depressive symptomatology in offspring.
产前感染，尤其是在妊娠中期，已被证明与后代的各种精神病理学结果有关；然而，将产前感染与后代抑郁结果联系起来的研究结果并不一致。先前的研究表明，可能是产前逆境（如感染和压力）的共同出现与后代的抑郁结果有关。尽管如此，迄今为止，尚无研究调查在存在感染的情况下，与产前压力相关的生物标志物（如皮质醇）水平升高是否可以解释这些结果。研究对象来自儿童健康与发展研究（CHDS），这是一项对孕妇及其后代进行的前瞻性纵向研究。本研究纳入了青少年研究中的母婴二元组，这是CHDS队列的一个子样本，其后代在青春期接受评估，其母亲也提供血清用于检测皮质醇（n = 695）。进行了分层多变量回归分析，以检验妊娠前三个月和第二个三个月期间母亲的皮质醇是否与母亲感染相互作用，从而预测青少年后代患抑郁症症状的风险增加。在控制母亲教育程度的情况下，妊娠中期感染和较高的皮质醇对青少年后代的抑郁评分有显著的交互作用（p = 0.04）。研究结果表明，较高的母亲皮质醇可能会使母亲及其后代对妊娠中期感染的干扰性影响更加敏感，从而使后代患抑郁症状的风险更高。
