@misc{SendGillesCoddetal.2018, author = {Send, T. S. and Gilles, M. and Codd, V. and Wolf, I. A. C. and Bardtke, S. and Streit, Fabian and Strohmaier, Jana and Frank, Josef and Schendel, D. and Sutterlin, M. W. and Denniff, M. and Laucht, Manfred and Samani, N. J. and Deuschle, Michael and Rietschel, Marcella and Witt, Stephanie H.}, title = {Telomere length in newborns is related to maternal stress during pregnancy Response}, series = {Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology}, volume = {43}, journal = {Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology}, number = {11}, publisher = {Nature Publ. Group}, address = {London}, issn = {0893-133X}, doi = {10.1038/s41386-018-0079-8}, pages = {2164 -- 2164}, year = {2018}, language = {en} } @article{SendBardtkeGillesetal.2018, author = {Send, Tabea Sarah and Bardtke, Svenja and Gilles, Maria and Wolf, Isabella Germaine and S{\"u}tterlin, Marc W. and Kirschbaum, Clemens and Laucht, Manfred and Witt, Stephanie H. and Rietschel, Marcella and Streit, Fabian and Deuschle, Michael}, title = {Stress reactivity in preschool-aged children}, series = {Psychoneuroendocrinology}, volume = {101}, journal = {Psychoneuroendocrinology}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0306-4530}, doi = {10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.11.002}, pages = {223 -- 231}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Prenatal maternal stress is an established risk factor for somatic and psychological health of the offspring. A dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in offspring has been suggested as an important mechanism. However, the impact of prenatal stress on stress reactivity in preschool-aged children is not yet well understood. This is partly due to the fact that for this age group there is no stress test as well established as for older children and adults. In the present work a previously published stress test (Kryski et al., 2011) was evaluated in a large sample of 45-month-old children (n = 339). Furthermore, the relation between measures of prenatal maternal stress and cortisol reactivity was investigated. Prenatal stress was defined as psychopathology (self-report available for n = 339; expert-rating available for a subsample of n = 246) and perceived stress (n = 244) during pregnancy. The stress paradigm elicited significant increases in salivary cortisol 30 and 40 min after the test, and 60.8\% of the children were classified as responders. Lower cortisol levels after the stress test were observed in the group of children with prenatal stress defined as maternal psychopathology (both self-reported and expert-rated). Maternal perceived stress as a continuous measure was not significantly associated with cortisol levels. However, when comparing children in the highest quartile of maternal perceived stress to all other children, significantly lower cortisol values were observed in the prenatally stressed group. The present study confirms the paradigm by Kryski et al. as an effective stress test for preschool-aged children. Moreover, it provides further evidence that prenatal stress impacts HPA axis reactivity. Future studies should target the timing, nature, and intensity of prenatal stressors and their effect on the stress response in offspring at different developmental stages.}, language = {en} } @article{GillesOttoWolfetal.2018, author = {Gilles, Maria and Otto, Henrike and Wolf, Isabell A. C. and Scharnholz, Barbara and Peus, Verena and Schredl, Michael and Suetterlin, Marc W. and Witt, Stephanie H. and Rietschel, Marcella and Laucht, Manfred and Deuschle, Michael}, title = {Maternal hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system activity and stress measures at birth}, series = {Psychoneuroendocrinology}, volume = {94}, journal = {Psychoneuroendocrinology}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0306-4530}, doi = {10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.04.022}, pages = {152 -- 161}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Background: Prenatal maternal stress might be a risk for the developing fetus and may have long-lasting effects on child and adult vulnerability to somatic and psychiatric disease. Over-exposure of the unborn to excess glucocorticoids and subsequent alteration of fetal development is hypothesized to be one of the key mechanisms linking prenatal stress with negative child outcome. Methods: In this prospective longitudinal study, mothers-to-be (n = 405) in late pregnancy (36.8 +/- 1.9 weeks of gestational age) and their singleton neonates were studied. We investigated the impact of different prenatal stress indices derived from six stress variables (perceived stress, specific prenatal worries, negative life events, symptoms of depression, trait anxiety, neuroticism) and diurnal maternal saliva cortisol secretion on gestational age and anthropometric measures at birth.}, language = {en} } @article{WittFrankGillesetal.2018, author = {Witt, Stephanie H. and Frank, Josef and Gilles, Maria and Lang, Maren and Treutlein, Jens and Streit, Fabian and Wolf, Isabell A. C. and Peus, Verena and Scharnholz, Barbara and Send, Tabea S. and Heilmann-Heimbach, Stefanie and Sivalingam, Sugirthan and Dukal, Helene and Strohmaier, Jana and S{\"u}tterlin, Marc and Arloth, Janine and Laucht, Manfred and N{\"o}then, Markus M. and Deuschle, Michael and Rietschel, Marcella}, title = {Impact on birth weight of maternal smoking throughout pregnancy mediated by DNA methylation}, series = {BMC genomics}, volume = {19}, journal = {BMC genomics}, publisher = {BMC}, address = {London}, issn = {1471-2164}, doi = {10.1186/s12864-018-4652-7}, pages = {10}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Background: Cigarette smoking has severe adverse health consequences in adults and in the offspring of mothers who smoke during pregnancy. One of the most widely reported effects of smoking during pregnancy is reduced birth weight which is in turn associated with chronic disease in adulthood. Epigenome-wide association studies have revealed that smokers show a characteristic "smoking methylation pattern", and recent authors have proposed that DNA methylation mediates the impact of maternal smoking on birth weight. The aims of the present study were to replicate previous reports that methylation mediates the effect of maternal smoking on birth weight, and for the first time to investigate whether the observed mediation effects are sex-specific in order to account for known sex-specific differences in methylation levels. Methods: Methylation levels in the cord blood of 313 newborns were determined using the Illumina HumanMethylation450K Beadchip. A total of 5,527 CpG sites selected on the basis of evidence from the literature were tested. To determine whether the observed association between maternal smoking and birth weight was attributable to methylation, mediation analyses were performed for significant CpG sites. Separate analyses were then performed in males and females. Results: Following quality control, 282 newborns eventually remained in the analysis. A total of 25 mothers had smoked consistently throughout the pregnancy. The birthweigt of newborns whose mothers had smoked throughout pregnancy was reduced by >200g. After correction for multiple testing, 30 CpGs showed differential methylation in the maternal smoking subgroup including top "smoking methylation pattern" genes AHRR, MYO1G, GFI1, CYP1A1, and CNTNAP2. The effect of maternal smoking on birth weight was partly mediated by the methylation of cg25325512 (PIM1); cg25949550 (CNTNAP2); and cg08699196 (ITGB7). Sex-specific analyses revealed a mediating effect for cg25949550 (CNTNAP2) in male newborns. Conclusion: The present data replicate previous findings that methylation can mediate the effect of maternal smoking on birth weight. The analysis of sex-dependent mediation effects suggests that the sex of the newborn may have an influence. Larger studies are warranted to investigate the role of both the identified differentially methylated loci and the sex of the newborn in mediating the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and birth weight.}, language = {en} }