Sex-specific association between prenatal life stress exposure and infant pro-inflammatory cytokine levels during acute respiratory infection.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Prenatal life stress exposure is linked to dysregulated immune function and chronic inflammatory disease in offspring, but we know little about its effects on infant immune response during viral infection.

Method

To address this issue, we examined associations between prenatal life stress exposure and infant upper-airway inflammatory markers during acute respiratory infection (ARI) using data from a prospective, population-based birth-cohort study (N = 180). Infant inflammation was measured as a continuous latent factor within a structural equation modeling framework using nasal wash concentrations of interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α. We hypothesized that infants exposed to prenatal life stress would have greater levels of nasal inflammat

SUBMITTER: Brunwasser SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6380181 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature