Dataset Information

Maternal Inflammation During Pregnancy and Offspring Brain Development: The Role of Mitochondria.

ABSTRACT: The association between maternal immune activation (MIA) during pregnancy and risk for offspring neuropsychiatric disorders has been increasingly recognized over the past several years. Among the mechanistic pathways that have been described through which maternal inflammation during pregnancy may affect fetal brain development, the role of mitochondria has received little attention. In this review, the role of mitochondria as a potential mediator of the association between MIA during pregnancy and offspring brain development and risk for psychiatric disorders will be proposed. As a basis for this postulation, convergent evidence is presented supporting the obligatory role of mitochondria in brain development, the role of mitochondria as mediators and initiators of inflammatory processes, and evidence of mitochondrial dysfunction in preclinical MIA exposure models and human neurodevelopmental disorders. Elucidating the role of mitochondria as a potential mediator of MIA-induced alterations in brain development and neurodevelopmental disease risk may not only provide new insight into the pathophysiology of mental health disorders that have their origins in exposure to infection/immune activation during pregnancy but also offer new therapeutic targets.

SUBMITTER: Gyllenhammer LE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9086015 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Maternal Inflammation During Pregnancy and Offspring Brain Development: The Role of Mitochondria.

Gyllenhammer Lauren E LE Rasmussen Jerod M JM Bertele Nina N Halbing Amy A Entringer Sonja S Wadhwa Pathik D PD Buss Claudia C

Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging 20211117 5

The association between maternal immune activation (MIA) during pregnancy and risk for offspring neuropsychiatric disorders has been increasingly recognized over the past several years. Among the mechanistic pathways that have been described through which maternal inflammation during pregnancy may affect fetal brain development, the role of mitochondria has received little attention. In this review, the role of mitochondria as a potential mediator of the association between MIA during pregnancy ...[more]

PMID: 34800727

Similar Datasets

Project description:ImportanceMaternal tobacco use during pregnancy has been associated with various health consequences, including suboptimal neurodevelopment in offspring. However, the effect of prenatal exposure to maternal smoking on child brain development has yet to be elucidated.ObjectiveTo investigate the association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and offspring brain development in preadolescence as well as the mediating pathways.Design, setting, and participantsThis prospective, population-based cohort study was embedded in the Generation R Study, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The Generation R Study was launched in 2002, with follow-up ongoing. Child brain morphology was assessed at 9 to 11 years of age (ie, 10-12 years between exposure and outcome assessment). Data analysis was performed from March 1, 2021, to February 28, 2022, and at the time of manuscript revision. Participants included the singleton children of pregnant women residing in the study area with an expected date of delivery between April 1, 2002, and January 31, 2006; 2704 children with information on maternal smoking during pregnancy and structural neuroimaging at 9 to 11 years of age were included. A subsample of 784 children with data on DNA methylation at birth was examined in the mediation analysis.ExposuresInformation on maternal smoking during pregnancy was collected via a questionnaire in each trimester. As a contrast, paternal smoking was assessed at recruitment.Main outcomes and measuresBrain morphology, including brain volumes and surface-based cortical measures (thickness, surface area, and gyrification), was assessed with magnetic resonance imaging. For mediation analysis, DNA methylation at birth was quantified by a weighted methylation risk score.ResultsThe 2704 participating children (1370 [50.7%] girls and 1334 [49.3%] boys) underwent brain imaging assessment at a mean (SD) age of 10.1 (0.6) years. Compared with nonexposed children (n = 2102), exposure to continued maternal smoking during pregnancy (n = 364) was associated with smaller total brain volume (volumetric difference [b] = -14.5 [95% CI, -25.1 to -4.0] cm3), cerebral gray matter volume (b = -7.8 [95% CI, -13.4 to -2.3] cm3), cerebral white matter volume (b = -5.9 [95% CI, -10.7 to -1.0] cm3), and surface area and less gyrification. These associations were not explained by paternal smoking nor mediated by smoking-associated DNA methylation patterns at birth. Children exposed to maternal smoking only in the first trimester (n = 238) showed no differences in brain morphology compared with nonexposed children.Conclusions and relevanceThe findings of this cohort study suggest that continued maternal tobacco use during pregnancy was associated with lower brain volumes and suboptimal cortical traits of offspring in preadolescence, which seemed to be independent of shared family factors. Tobacco cessation before pregnancy, or as soon as pregnancy is known, should be recommended to women for optimal brain development of their offspring.

Project description:ImportanceMaternal mental health problems during pregnancy are associated with altered neurodevelopment in offspring, but the long-term relationship between these prenatal risk factors and offspring brain structure in adulthood remains incompletely understood due to a paucity of longitudinal studies.ObjectiveTo evaluate the association between exposure to maternal depression in utero and offspring brain age in the third decade of life, and to evaluate recent stressful life events as potential moderators of this association.Design, setting, and participantsThis cohort study examined the 30-year follow-up of a Czech prenatal birth cohort with a within-participant design neuroimaging component in young adulthood conducted from 1991 to 2022. Participants from the European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood prenatal birth cohort were recruited for 2 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) follow-ups, one between ages 23 and 24 years (early 20s) and another between ages 28 and 30 years (late 20s).ExposuresMaternal depression during pregnancy; stressful life events in the past year experienced by the young adult offspring.Main outcomes and measuresGap between estimated neuroanatomical vs chronological age at MRI scan (brain age gap estimation [BrainAGE]) calculated once in participants' early 20s and once in their late 20s, and pace of aging calculated as the differences between BrainAGE at the 2 MRI sessions in young adulthood.ResultsA total of 260 individuals participated in the second neuroimaging follow-up (mean [SD] age, 29.5 [0.6] years; 135 [52%] male); MRI data for both time points and a history of maternal depression were available for 110 participants (mean [SD] age, 29.3 [0.6] years; 56 [51%] male). BrainAGE in participants' early 20s was correlated with BrainAGE in their late 20s (r = 0.7, P < .001), and a previously observed association between maternal depression during pregnancy and BrainAGE in their early 20s persisted in their late 20s (adjusted R2 = 0.04; P = .04). However, no association emerged between maternal depression during pregnancy and the pace of aging between the 2 MRI sessions. The stability of the associations between maternal depression during pregnancy and BrainAGE was also supported by the lack of interactions with recent stress. In contrast, more recent stress was associated with greater pace of aging between the 2 MRI sessions, independent of maternal depression (adjusted R2 = 0.09; P = .01).Conclusions and relevanceThe findings of this cohort study suggest that maternal depression and recent stress may have independent associations with brain age and the pace of aging, respectively, in young adulthood. Prevention and treatment of depression in pregnant mothers may have long-term implications for offspring brain development.

Dataset Information

Maternal Inflammation During Pregnancy and Offspring Brain Development: The Role of Mitochondria.

Publications

Maternal Inflammation During Pregnancy and Offspring Brain Development: The Role of Mitochondria.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets