Maternal psychological resilience and fetal programming of the telomere system

Theoretical Background. Age-related, non-communicable diseases contribute ever-increasingly to the global burden of disease. Risk or resilience to these conditions begin to be shaped even before birth via alterations in maternal-placental fetal biology. The telomere system plays a central role in the development aging-related of non-communicable diseases and the aging process. Fetal telomere biology seems to be plastic to conditions in the womb. Previous studies have established that maternal prenatal stress is associated with shorter offspring telomere length (TL). This study seeks to investigate whether maternal positive psychological factors and psychological resilience during pregnancy may function as a protective factor in the context of fetal programming of the telomere system. Study Aims. The study had the following four aims: 1. To replicate past findings on the association between higher levels of stress during pregnancy and shorter newborn telomere length. 2. To investigate the association between maternal social support during pregnancy and newborn telomere length. 3. To test the association between maternal positivity during pregnancy and newborn telomere length. 4. To investigate the association between maternal psychological resilience during pregnancy and newborn telomere length. Methods. The study sample was drawn from a large, prospective pregnancy cohort study that was extensively characterized in terms of stress, social support, and positivity throughout pregnancy. Prenatal psychological data and newborn TL data (measured using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) from leukocytes isolated from cord blood cells) was available for N=656 mother-child dyads. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to isolate latent maternal positivity and stress factors. These were regressed to create a resilience factor representing the degree of positivity a woman experienced during pregnancy taking into account her level of stress. Linear regression models were created predicting newborn TL from maternal psychological factors and other known determinants of TL at birth. Results. Maternal stress significantly predicted shorter newborn TL (β = -0.079, p=0.044), social support (β = 0.080, p=0.040) and positivity significantly predicted longer TL (β = 0.135, p=0.001). Maternal resilience (positivity accounting for stress) was significantly and positively associated with newborn TL (β = 0.114, p = 0.005) with each standard deviation increase in resilience predicting 12% longer newborn TL. Conclusions. Maternal psychological resilience during pregnancy seems to exert beneficial effects on the fetal telomere system. Children of mothers with greater resilience during pregnancy may begin life with a head start on a path towards healthy aging and longevity. This underscores the importance of supporting maternal mental health during pregnancy to improve health for her and her child, combat health disparities, and improve population health for decades into the future.

Author dc:creator

• Verner, Glenn

• resilience
• positive psychology
• telomeres
• fetal programming
• pregnancy
• stress

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/refubium/rechtliches/Nutzungsbedingungen

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier URI

http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/refubium-33109

OAI record oai:identifier

https://refubium.fu-berlin.de/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Arefubium.fu-berlin.de%3Afub188%2F33388