title: Pregnant women's cognitive appraisal of a natural disaster affects their children's BMI and central adiposity via DNA methylation: Project Ice Storm.
abstract: We determined the extent to which DNA methylation mediates the effects of maternal cognitive appraisal of a natural disaster during pregnancy on offspring growth at age 13. Negative maternal cognitive appraisal predicted both lower BMI and central adiposity via DNA methylation of diabetes-related genes, suggesting a protective role of epigenetics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, McGill University and Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cao-Lei
authors.affiliation: Department of Kinanthropology, University of Quebec at Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Kelsey N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Dancause
authors.affiliation: Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Guillaume
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Elgbeili
authors.affiliation: Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Laplante
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics and Sackler Program for Epigenetics and Developmental Psychobiology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: Moshe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Szyf
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, McGill University and Psychosocial Research Division, Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.. Electronic address: suzanne.king@mcgill.ca.
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: King
mesh_terms: D050154:Adiposity; D001290:Attitude; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003071:Cognition; D019175:DNA Methylation; D004190:Disasters; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000235:genetics