Association between maternal perceived stress during pregnancy and offspring DNA methylation changes in HPA axis genes at birth in the ECHO Consortium.

ABSTRACT: Evidence has linked maternal exposure to stress during pregnancy with poor offspring health and neurodevelopmental outcomes. However, the precise mechanism by which this may occur has not been fully elucidated. In this study, we examined whether maternal perceived stress during pregnancy was associated with newborn blood DNA methylation (DNAm) in hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis-related genes (NR3C1, FKBP5, and HSD11B2) in single CpG site and gene-based analyses. We analysed a subset of 661 mother-child pairs from the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes cohort study that met our analytic inclusion criteria. Maternal perceived stress was measured during pregnancy using the perceived stress scale, and newborn DNAm was measured using the Illumina 450K and EPIC B

SUBMITTER: Jones K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12462613 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature