title: Pregnant women's cognitive appraisal of a natural disaster affects DNA methylation in their children 13 years later: Project Ice Storm.
abstract: Prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) can impact a variety of outcomes in the offspring throughout childhood and persisting into adulthood as shown in human and animal studies. Many of the effects of PNMS on offspring outcomes likely reflect the effects of epigenetic changes, such as DNA methylation, to the fetal genome. However, no animal or human research can determine the extent to which the effects of PNMS on DNA methylation in human offspring is the result of the objective severity of the stressor to the pregnant mother, or her negative appraisal of the stressor or her resulting degree of negative stress. We examined the genome-wide DNA methylation profile in T cells from 34 adolescents whose mothers had rated the 1998 Québec ice storm's consequences as positive or negative (that is, cognitive appraisal). The methylation levels of 2872 CGs differed significantly between adolescents in the positive and negative maternal cognitive appraisal groups. These CGs are affiliated with 1564 different genes and with 408 different biological pathways, which are prominently featured in immune function. Importantly, there was a significant overlap in the differentially methylated CGs or genes and biological pathways that are associated with cognitive appraisal and those associated with objective PNMS as we reported previously. Our study suggests that pregnant women's cognitive appraisals of an independent stressor may have widespread effects on DNA methylation across the entire genome of their unborn children, detectable during adolescence. Therefore, cognitive appraisals could be an important predictor variable to explore in PNMS research.
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada [2] Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cao-Lei
authors.affiliation: Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Elgbeili
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Massart
authors.affiliation: Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: D P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Laplante
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada [2] Sackler Program for Epigenetics and Developmental Psychobiology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Szyf
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada [2] Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Montreal, QC, Canada.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: King
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D055907:Climatic Processes; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000502:physiology*; D004190:Disasters; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007053:Ice; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D037841:Pregnant People; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011792:Quebec; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D007053:Ice