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Allostatic load in early pregnancy is associated with poor sleep quality.

ABSTRACT: Allostatic load (AL) measures the cumulative impact of chronic stress and is associated with adverse health outcomes. A novel scoring system has previously been developed for AL in early pregnancy that is associated with pre-eclampsia. It was hypothesized that AL, as identified by the present model, is associated with psychosocial stressors and, specifically, poor sleep quality.Women were selected from a low-risk, community-dwelling study population who enrolled at <15 weeks gestation. Nine physiologic components were divided among the domains of cardiovascular, metabolic, and inflammatory function. Spearman's rank correlations were used to examine the association of AL with age, income, the Revised Prenatal Distress Questionnaire (NuPDQ), Inventory of Depressive Symptoms (IDS), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used to compare AL by race and educational attainment.A total of 103 women were identified, with: a mean age of 29.8 ± 5.0 years, 17.5% black, and mean gestational age 12.2 ± 1.1 weeks. Allostatic load was positively correlated with the PSQI (? = 0.23, p = 0.018). There were no associations with age, income, prenatal distress, race, or depression scores. College-educated women had lower AL compared with those with less education (0.57 ± 0.43 vs 0.81 ± 0.55, p = 0.045).Higher AL, measured by the pregnancy-specific model, was associated with poorer sleep quality and lower educational attainment, both of which were considered to be chronic stressors. These relationships were consistent with previous findings in non-pregnant populations, and suggest that AL may be useful for capturing the physiologic impact of chronic stress in early pregnancy.

SUBMITTER: Hux VJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5501183 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Allostatic load in early pregnancy is associated with poor sleep quality.

Hux Vanessa J VJ Roberts James M JM Okun Michele L ML

Sleep medicine 20161022

<h4>Background</h4>Allostatic load (AL) measures the cumulative impact of chronic stress and is associated with adverse health outcomes. A novel scoring system has previously been developed for AL in early pregnancy that is associated with pre-eclampsia. It was hypothesized that AL, as identified by the present model, is associated with psychosocial stressors and, specifically, poor sleep quality.<h4>Methods</h4>Women were selected from a low-risk, community-dwelling study population who enrolle ...[more]

PMID: 28449913

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Project description:BackgroundMitochondria are multifunctional energy-producing and signaling organelles that support life and contribute to stress adaptation. There is a growing understanding of the dynamic relationship between stress exposure and mitochondrial biology; however, the influence of stress on key domains of mitochondrial biology during early-life, particularly the earliest phases of intra-uterine/prenatal period remains largely unknown. Thus, the goal of this study was to examine the impact of fetal exposure to stress (modeled as the biological construct allostatic load) upon mitochondrial biology in early childhood.MethodsIn n = 30 children (range: 3.5-6 years, 53% male), we quantified mitochondrial content via citrate synthase (CS) activity and mtDNA copy number (mtDNAcn), and measured mitochondrial bioenergetic capacity via respiratory chain enzyme activities (complexes I (CI), II (CII), and IV (CIV)) in platelet-depleted peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). In a cohort of healthy pregnant women, maternal allostatic load was operationalized as a latent variable (sum of z-scores) representing an aggregation of early-, mid- and late-gestation measures of neuroendocrine (cortisol), immune (interleukin-6, C-reactive protein), metabolic (homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance, free fatty acids), and cardiovascular (aggregate systolic and diastolic blood pressure) systems, as well as an anthropometric indicator (pre-pregnancy body mass index [BMI]).ResultsAn interquartile increase in maternal allostatic load during pregnancy was associated with higher mitochondrial content (24% and 15% higher CS and mtDNAcn), and a higher mitochondrial bioenergetic capacity (16%, 23%, and 25% higher CI, CII and CIV enzymatic activities) in child leukocytes. The positive association between maternal allostatic load during pregnancy and child mitochondrial content and bioenergetic capacity remained significant after accounting for the effects of key pre- and post-natal maternal and child covariates (p's < 0.05, except CI p = 0.073).ConclusionWe report evidence that prenatal biological stress exposure, modeled as allostatic load, was associated with elevated child mitochondrial content and bioenergetic capacity in early childhood. This higher mitochondrial content and bioenergetic capacity (per leukocyte) may reflect increased energetic demands at the immune or organism level, and thus contribute to wear-and-tear and pathophysiology, and/or programmed pro-inflammatory phenotypes. These findings provide potential mechanistic insight into the cellular processes underlying developmental programming, and support the potential role that changes in mitochondrial content and bioenergetic functional capacity may play in altering life-long susceptibility for health and disease.

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Allostatic load in early pregnancy is associated with poor sleep quality.

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Allostatic load in early pregnancy is associated with poor sleep quality.

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