Beraldo, Ella O; Inkster, Amy M; Vaillancourt, Cathy 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0543-6244; Peñaherrera, Maria S; Kildea, Sue; King, Suzanne et Robinson, Wendy Paige
(2024).
Sex Differences in Cell Composition and Epigenetic Age Acceleration Associated with Prenatal Maternal Stress in the Placenta
In: 71st Annual Meeting of the Society-for-Reproductive-Investigation (SRI), March 12-16, 2024, Vancouver, Canada.
Résumé
Introduction: In utero exposure to prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) is
associated with increased risk of adverse outcomes in ofspring. These
negative outcomes may also be sex and gestational age (GA) at exposure
dependent. The placenta protects the fetus from changes in the maternal
environment through several mechanisms, including by inactivating
maternal cortisol. DNA methylation (DNAme), a well-studied epigenetic
mark associated with gene expression patterns, has been shown to be
responsive to some external infuences. However, the efect of PNMS on
placental DNAme is not well understood.
Methods: Illumina MethylationEPIC (850K) array data was processed on
105 placentas exposed to the severe 2011 Queensland foods. Participants
were surveyed to assess objective and subjective PNMS with the
Queensland Flood Objective Stress Scale (QFOSS) and the Composite
Scale of Maternal Subjective Stress (COSMOSS) respectively, as well
as cognitive appraisal of the food’s consequences (CONSEQ). Fetal sex,
GA at birth, and GA at food exposure were also collected. The PLaNET
R package was used to estimate GA, genetic ancestry, and cell type
compositions from bulk placental DNAme data.
Results: We observed sex diferences in the ratio of cytotrophoblast
(CT) to syncytiotrophoblast (ST) proportion in placentas exposed in the
frst trimester, and at some of the stress exposure levels across QFOSS,
COSMOSS, and CONSEQ scores, with males (n=59) having lower
predicted CT to ST ratio than females (n=46). Placental epigenetic
age was signifcantly accelerated (p < 0.05) in cases with more negative
CONSEQ scores compared to cases with neutral or positive scores.
Signifcant intrinsic placental epigenetic age acceleration was seen with
increasing QFOSS (p=0.027) and COSMOSS (p=0.026) scores. CT to
ST ratio decreased signifcantly with increasing extrinsic epigenetic age
(p=0.002), but not intrinsic epigenetic age (p=0.682).
Conclusion: Our results suggest that neutral or positive maternal cognitive
appraisal may reduce epigenetic age acceleration in the placenta. We also
fnd that stress is associated with sex diferences in both cell composition
and epigenetic age acceleration in the placenta, though the mechanism
by which this occurs is not known, and will require further investigation.
| Type de document: | Document issu d'une conférence ou d'un atelier |
|---|---|
| Informations complémentaires: | Reproductive Sciences 31(Suppl. 1):163A Meeting Abstract:T-157 |
| Mots-clés libres: | - |
| Centre: | Centre INRS-Institut Armand Frappier |
| Date de dépôt: | 06 nov. 2024 05:28 |
| Dernière modification: | 06 nov. 2024 05:28 |
| URI: | https://espace.inrs.ca/id/eprint/16111 |
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