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. 2021 Jul 12;22(14):7458.
doi: 10.3390/ijms22147458.

Symptoms of Prenatal Depression Associated with Shorter Telomeres in Female Placenta

Isabel Garcia-Martin  1 , Richard J A Penketh  2 , Samantha M Garay  1 , Rhiannon E Jones  3 , Julia W Grimstead  3 , Duncan M Baird  3 , Rosalind M John  1
Affiliations

Symptoms of Prenatal Depression Associated with Shorter Telomeres in Female Placenta

Isabel Garcia-Martin et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Background: Depression is a common mood disorder during pregnancy impacting one in every seven women. Children exposed to prenatal depression are more likely to be born at a low birth weight and develop chronic diseases later in life. A proposed hypothesis for this relationship between early exposure to adversity and poor outcomes is accelerated aging. Telomere length has been used as a biomarker of cellular aging. We used high-resolution telomere length analysis to examine the relationship between placental telomere length distributions and maternal mood symptoms in pregnancy.

Methods: This study utilised samples from the longitudinal Grown in Wales (GiW) study. Women participating in this study were recruited at their presurgical appointment prior to a term elective caesarean section (ELCS). Women completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and trait subscale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Telomere length distributions were generated using single telomere length analysis (STELA) in 109 term placenta (37-42 weeks). Multiple linear regression was performed to examine the relationship between maternally reported symptoms of depression and anxiety at term and mean placental telomere length.

Results: Prenatal depression symptoms were significantly negatively associated with XpYp telomere length in female placenta (B = -0.098, p = 0.026, 95% CI -0.184, -0.012). There was no association between maternal depression symptoms and telomere length in male placenta (B = 0.022, p = 0.586, 95% CI -0.059, 0.103). There was no association with anxiety symptoms and telomere length for either sex.

Conclusion: Maternal prenatal depression is associated with sex-specific differences in term placental telomeres. Telomere shortening in female placenta may indicate accelerated placental aging.

Keywords: placenta; prenatal depression; sex differences; telomere shortening.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Q–Q plot of mean telomere length.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Representative STELA. Images of two autoradiographs are shown alongside molecular weight markers. The left panel shows STELA PCR reactions from three female placenta samples from the “low mood score” (EPDS < 13) group with 6 reactions run for each sample. The right panel shows comparable data for “high mood score” (EPDS ≥ 13) group. Mean telomere lengths ± standard deviation (SD) are given below the lanes for each sample. The coefficient of variation of all samples was <1 indicating low variance.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Telomere length differences in placenta according to mood scores (EPDS and STAI) for males (n = 55) and females (n = 54). The association between maternally reported depression symptoms (EPDS score) and mean placental telomere length (A), and the association between maternally reported anxiety symptoms (STAI score) and mean placental telomere length (B) are shown as linear regressions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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