DNA methylation signatures triggered by prenatal maternal stress exposure to a natural disaster: Project Ice Storm

ABSTRACT: Background: Prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) predicts a wide variety of behavioral and physical outcomes in the offspring. Although epigenetic processes may be responsible for PNMS effects, human research is hampered by the lack of experimental methods that parallel controlled animal studies. Disasters, however, provide natural experiments that can provide models of prenatal stress. Methods: Five months after the 1998 Quebec ice storm we recruited women who had been pregnant during the disaster and assessed their degrees of objective hardship and subjective distress. Thirteen years later, we investigated DNA methylation profiling in T cells obtained from 36 of the children, and compared selected results with those from saliva samples obtained from the same children at age 8. Results: Prenat

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

SUBMITTER: Matthew Suderman 

PROVIDER: E-GEOD-72354 | biostudies-arrayexpress |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-arrayexpress