Psychoneuroendocrinology
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Apr 2020
Adverse childhood experiences, posttraumatic stress, and FKBP5 methylation patterns in postpartum women and their newborn infants.
Genetic variation and epigenetic mechanisms involving the stress-related gene FKBP5 have been implicated in the intergenerational transmission of trauma-related effects in adult offspring of trauma-exposed caregivers, but these processes have not been fully explored in postpartum women and their newborn infants. ⋯ Our results provide evidence that links maternal threat-based ACEs and trauma-related symptoms during pregnancy with allele-specific epigenetic patterns in postpartum women and their newborn infants. These findings provide mechanistic insight into the potential intergenerational impact of ACEs and the effect of maternal PTSD symptoms during pregnancy.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Mar 2020
The role of low-grade inflammation in ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) - associations with symptoms.
Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS) often present with a range of flu-like symptoms resembling sickness behavior as well as widespread pain and concentration deficits. The aim of this study was to explore the association between inflammatory markers previously shown to be related to fatigue severity in ME/CFS and common ME/CFS symptoms post-exertional fatigue, impaired cognitive processing, musculoskeletal pain and recurrent flu-like symptoms, and the moderating effect of sex on these associations. ⋯ Only β-NGF was associated with the fatigue severity measure. However, higher levels of CCL11, CXCL10, IL-7, TNF-α and TGF-β-1 were significantly associated with higher levels of impaired cognitive processing and musculoskeletal pain, and sex was a significant moderator for CXCL10, IL-7 and TGF-β-1. Future studies should investigate the relationship between inflammatory markers and key symptoms in ME/CFS in a longitudinal design in order to explore if and for whom low-grade inflammation may contribute to illness development.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Feb 2020
The association between abuse history in childhood and salivary rhythms of cortisol and DHEA in postmenopausal women.
A history of child abuse (CA) is associated with morbidity and mortality in adulthood, and one proposed mechanism is dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Therefore, we evaluated whether a history of physical and sexual CA was associated with daily rhythms of HPA hormones (cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA)) among postmenopausal women (mean age: 60.6 years). In 2013, 233 participants from the Nurses' Health Study II provided up to 5-timed saliva samples over the course of a day: immediately upon awakening, 45 min, 4 h, and 10 h after waking, and prior to going to sleep. ⋯ Models adjusted for characteristics at each saliva collection, health status, sleep quality, medications, and hormone use. Compared to those with none-to-moderate CA, women with high-to-severe CA had different diurnal rhythms in the early and evening hours, including blunted (less steep) early declines in DHEA (% difference (%D) = 10.7, 95 % Confidence Interval (CI) 4.3, 17.5), and steeper late declines in both cortisol and DHEA (cortisol %D = -2.5, 95 % CI -4.8, -0.1, and DHEA %D= -3.9, 95 % CI -6.0, -1.8). In conclusion, high-to-severe abuse history prior to age 18 was more strongly associated with differences in DHEA rather than cortisol, suggesting that early life abuse may be related to dysregulation of stress-response mechanisms later in life.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Sep 2019
Randomized Controlled TrialThe contribution of childhood adversity to cortisol measures of early life stress amongst infants in rural India: Findings from the early life stress sub-study of the SPRING cluster randomised controlled trial (SPRING-ELS).
The majority of the world's children live in low- and middle-income countries and face multiple obstacles to optimal wellbeing. The mechanisms by which adversities - social, cultural, psychological, environmental, economic - get 'under the skin' in the early days of life and become biologically embedded remain an important line of enquiry. We therefore examined the contribution of childhood adversity through pregnancy and the first year of life to hair and salivary cortisol measures of early life stress in the India SPRING home visits cluster RCT which aims to improve early childhood development. ⋯ This is the largest study of hair cortisol in young children, and the first in a low- and middle-income country setting. Whilst the short-term diurnal measures of cortisol did not appear to be linked with adversity, chronic exposure over several months appears to be strongly associated with cumulative adversity. These findings should spur further work to understand the specific ways in which adversity becomes biologically embedded, and how this can be tackled. They also lend support to ongoing action to tackle childhood adversity in communities around the world.
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Psychoneuroendocrinology · Aug 2019
Acute psychological stress increases serum circulating cell-free mitochondrial DNA.
Intrinsic biological mechanisms transduce psychological stress into physiological adaptation that requires energy, but the role of mitochondria and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) in this process has not been defined in humans. Here, we show that similar to physical injury, exposure to psychological stress increases serum circulating cell-free mtDNA (ccf-mtDNA) levels. ⋯ Collectively, these findings provide evidence that acute psychological stress induces ccf-mtDNA and implicate neuroendocrine signaling as a potential trigger for ccf-mtDNA release. Further controlled work is needed to confirm that observed increases in ccf-mtDNA result from stress exposure and to determine the functional significance of this effect.