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Long-Term Associations Between Prenatal Maternal Cortisol and Child Neuroendocrine-Immune Regulation.

November 20, 2019 by IISBR

Background:

Advancing understanding of the developmental origins of neuroendocrine-immune (NEI) functioning is key to elucidating the biological mechanisms involved in health and disease risk across the lifespan. This study examined whether prenatal maternal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity moderates child NEI relations and explored the consistency of this moderating effect across gestation.

Methods:

Pregnant women participated in five prenatal study visits from 24 to 38 weeks gestation. At each visit, women provided a saliva sample. In a 5-year follow-up study, children (nfemale = 25, nmale=20) provided four saliva samples and participated in behavioral assessments and challenge tasks. Prenatal maternal saliva samples were assayed for cortisol. Child saliva samples were assayed for cortisol and cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, TNFα) as indices of HPA and inflammatory activity. Multilevel mixed-effects models examined the moderation of child NEI relations by prenatal maternal cortisol.

Results:

Among males, average prenatal maternal cortisol did not moderate child NEI relations. Among females, average prenatal maternal cortisol moderated some child NEI relations with higher prenatal cortisol associated with more positive cortisol-cytokine relations at age five. When examined by gestational time point, there were more significant NEI moderation effects by maternal cortisol from later gestation (≥ 30 weeks) than earlier.

Conclusions:

The findings suggest prenatal maternal HPA activity may moderate child NEI functioning. Additional research conducted with more heterogeneous and larger samples is needed to fully understand these relations. Furthering our knowledge of NEI development has important research and clinical implications, particularly for understanding and addressing conditions with inflammatory pathophysiologies, such as depression and cardiovascular disease.

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Tagged With: Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, maternal cortisol, salivary cytokines, sex differences

Call for Papers on Salivary Bioscience in Behavioral Medicine

May 30, 2018 by IISBR

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE

Letter of Intent Deadline: November 15, 2018

Facilitated by advances in salivary bioscience, great strides over the past several decades have been made in understanding how psychological and social factors “get under the skin.” Research utilizing salivary markers of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, sympathetic nervous system activation, as well as other neuroendocrine and immune processes has greatly contributed to research in behavioral medicine. This has included more precise identification of the biological pathways by which such factors influence health and disease. Behavioral medicine research increasingly integrates advanced clinical and laboratory assessments of relevant immune system and neuroendocrine markers in saliva to identify mechanisms, stress processes, and evaluate the impact of clinical intervention on physiological systems. This special call aims to highlight novel contributions of salivary bioscience to behavioral medicine with emphasis on research relevant to chronic management, the influence of psychological and social factors on disease processes and understanding stress processes. This can include observational, experimental, and intervention research. In fact, papers that document how changes in salivary levels of health-relevant biomarkers in response to behavioral interventions contribute to intervention efficacy are encouraged. Research that bridges the intersections of behavioral medicine and other areas of research (e.g., neuroscience, medical practice, nursing, public health, health psychology) are likely to make a strong contribution.

Read the Full Call

Tagged With: health psychology, HPA axis, Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, neuroscience, public health, salivary bioscience

Individual differences in the activity of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis: Relations to age and cumulative risk in early childhood.

April 29, 2017 by IISBR

Background:

This study examined individual differences in the function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis with regard to age and cumulative risk during challenging laboratory tasks administered at 6, 12, 24, and 36 months. Saliva samples were collected from a majority-minority sample of N=185 children (57% African American, 50% female) prior to and following these tasks and later assayed for cortisol. Cumulative distal risk was indexed via a composite of maternal marital status, maternal education, income-to-needs ratio, the number of children in the household, and maternal age at childbirth. Probing of hierarchical models in which cortisol levels and age were nested within child revealed significant differences in cortisol as a function of both age and cumulative risk, such that children exposed to high levels of risk exhibited higher levels of cortisol both within and across age. These results highlight the sensitivity of the HPA axis to environmental context at the level of the individual, even as that sensitivity is manifest against the background of species-typical biological development.

View Abstract

Tagged With: cortisol, Cumulative risk, Early childhood, Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis

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Recent Publications

  • Kimonis, E. R., et al. (2018). Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its ratio to cortisol moderate associations between maltreatment and psychopathology in male juvenile offenders. Psychoneuroendocrinology.
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  • Pisanic, N., et al. (2018). Minimally Invasive Saliva Testing to Monitor Norovirus Infection in Community Settings. J Infect Dis.
  • Affifi, T. D., et al. (2018). Testing the theory of resilience and relational load (TRRL) in families with type I diabetes. Health Commun.
  • Wheelock, M.D., et al. (2018). Psychosocial stress reactivity is associated with decreased whole brain network efficiency and increased amygdala centrality. Behav Neurosci.
  • Kornienko, O., et al. (2018). Associations Between Secretory Immunoglobulin A and Social Network Structure. Int J Behav Med.
  • Kuhlman, K. R., et al. (2018). Interparental conflict and child HPA-axis responses to acute stress: Insights using intensive repeated measures. J Fam Psychol.
  • Kuhlman, K. R., et al. (2018). HPA-Axis Activation as a Key Moderator of Childhood Trauma Exposure and Adolescent Mental Health. Journal of abnormal child psychology.
  • Corey-Bloom, J., et al. (2018). Salivary levels of total huntingtin are elevated in Huntington’s disease patients. Sci Rep.
  • Martinez, A. D., et al. (2018). Household fear of deportation in Mexican-origin families: Relation to body mass index percentiles and salivary uric acid. Am J Hum Biol.
  • Lucas, T., et al. (2018). Justice for all? Beliefs about justice for self and others and telomere length in African Americans. Cultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol.
  • Woerner, J., et al. (2018). Salivary uric acid: Associations with resting and reactive blood pressure response to social evaluative stress in healthy African Americans. Psychoneuroendocrinology.
  • Riis J.L., et al. (2018). The validity, stability, and utility of measuring uric acid in saliva. Biomark Med.

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