Stress during pregnancy linked to shorter telomeres for white, not Black, children
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Maternal stress during pregnancy was associated with shorter telomeres among the offspring of white mothers, but not those born to Black mothers, according to prospective data published in Psychological Medicine.
Telomeres shorten with age, and their length is associated with the onset of conditions such as heart disease and diabetes, according to a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), press release about the study.
“There are some early studies showing that pregnancy stress is associated with shorter telomeres in babies,” Stefanie Mayer, PhD, an assistant professor of psychiatry at UCSF, told Healio. “Understanding how aging starts in the womb and is related to maternal stress is a critical research area. However, these studies were often done only in white [population] samples. We wanted to understand how stress transmits to the next generation, and how this intersects with race given racial disparities in health and stress. We were also interested in understanding what types of stressful life experiences matter most for offspring telomeres.”
Defining the cohort
Mayer and colleagues recruited original participants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study (NGHS), which enrolled white and Black girls aged 9 or 10 years from 1987 to 1988 and followed them until age 19 or 20 years to evaluate racial disparities in obesity and CVD.
The researchers used saliva provided by participants at midlife, as well as their biological children, to evaluate the impact of maternal stressors in adolescence, pregnancy and across the life span on children’s telomere length.
In total, 222 dyads of mothers (mean age, 39.31 years) and their youngest child (mean age, 8.12 years) were included. There were 112 Black mothers and 110 white mothers in the cohort. Most (63%) participants retrospectively reported at least one pregnancy stressor at midlife, with 57% reporting at least one social stressor and 38% reporting at least one financial stressor.
Maternal and child telomere lengths were positively associated, but children’s telomere lengths were not associated with maternal race, age, education or annual household income or child age.
Associations between stressors, child telomere length
Maternal stressors during pregnancy and race were associated with offspring telomere length. Specifically, more stressors were associated with shorter telomeres in children, but only among those born to white mothers. Stratification by race revealed a negative association between maternal stressors during pregnancy among offspring of white mothers, but not Black mothers. However, the association for children of white mothers was nonsignificant.
Further analyses revealed that interactions between maternal race and financial stressors during pregnancy — not social stressors — predicted child telomere length (P = .024).
“We did not find this effect in children of Black mothers and need more research to understand this,” Mayer said. “It may not be that the relationship does not exist, but rather our measures of stress did not capture the right types of stress (eg, discrimination).”
Additional analyses showed that financial stressors were associated with shorter telomeres in boys of white mothers only (P = .01).
Analyses of maternal stressors during adolescence and across the life span revealed no interactions between maternal race and offspring telomere length. These stressors also had no effects on child telomere length when stratifying by race.
“It is now well established that stress during pregnancy can have important effects on both the health of women and on the developing fetus,” Elissa S. Epel, PhD, a professor and vice chair of the department of psychiatry at UCSF, told Healio. “Our study helps us see how stress may impact babies in ways that may track through life.”
Mayer said the team will continue follow-up with the cohort to understand the impact of intergenerational stress on long-term health and aging.
References:
- Berthold J. Pregnant moms’ stress may accelerate cell aging of White, not Black, kids. UCSF. www.ucsf.edu/news/2022/12/424356/pregnant-moms-stress-may-accelerate-cell-aging-white-not-black-kids. Published Dec. 2, 2022. Accessed Dec. 9, 2022.
- Mayer SE, et al. Psychol Med. 2022;doi:10.1017/S0033291722003397.