Fetal growth and the adrenocortical response to psychological stress
Fetal growth and the adrenocortical response to psychological stress
Context: Experimental studies in animals show that adverse prenatal environments lead to lifelong alterations in the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis which mediates the stress response through secretion of glucocorticoid hormones. The extent to which such prenatal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis adaptations occur in humans is unknown.
Objective: To determine whether smaller but otherwise healthy term babies are more likely to demonstrate increased glucocorticoid responses to psychological stress in childhood.
Design & Participants: A cross-sectional study of 68 boys and 72 girls (aged 7-9 yr) who have been followed since 12 weeks of gestation when their mothers took part in a study of healthy children born in Southampton, UK. Main outcome measure: Salivary cortisol responses to psychological stress.
Results: In boys, birth weight was inversely related to salivary cortisol responses to stress (r = -0.56, P < 0.001) but not to morning cortisol levels while in girls, morning peak cortisol was inversely related to birth weight (r = -0.36, P < 0.05). These associations were independent of gestational age and potential confounding factors including obesity, social class and educational achievement.
Conclusions: This study suggests that processes occurring during fetal life, resulting in smaller newborns, have a lasting effect on adrenocortical responses to stress in boys and on basal adrenocortical activity in girls. Given the known associations between small alterations in adrenocortical activity and features of the metabolic syndrome such as raised blood pressure and glucose intolerance, these effects warrant further investigation of their potential impact on the future health of pre-pubertal children.
aged, birth, birth weight, blood, childhood, cross-sectional studies, environment, fetal, gestational age, glucose, growth, health, human, humans, mothers, stress, syndrome, weight
1868-1871
Jones, Alexander
6db57b28-bd86-40c4-a3ff-d28ea5e286e4
Godfrey, Keith M.
0931701e-fe2c-44b5-8f0d-ec5c7477a6fd
Wood, Peter
9d5d74be-0a73-481e-8c42-ac2e1fe32d12
Osmond, Clive
2677bf85-494f-4a78-adf8-580e1b8acb81
Goulden, Peter
1b3d25e7-a22e-4d20-9018-d33b9f04e78c
Phillips, David I.W.
29b73be7-2ff9-4fff-ae42-d59842df4cc6
2006
Jones, Alexander
6db57b28-bd86-40c4-a3ff-d28ea5e286e4
Godfrey, Keith M.
0931701e-fe2c-44b5-8f0d-ec5c7477a6fd
Wood, Peter
9d5d74be-0a73-481e-8c42-ac2e1fe32d12
Osmond, Clive
2677bf85-494f-4a78-adf8-580e1b8acb81
Goulden, Peter
1b3d25e7-a22e-4d20-9018-d33b9f04e78c
Phillips, David I.W.
29b73be7-2ff9-4fff-ae42-d59842df4cc6
Jones, Alexander, Godfrey, Keith M., Wood, Peter, Osmond, Clive, Goulden, Peter and Phillips, David I.W.
(2006)
Fetal growth and the adrenocortical response to psychological stress.
Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 91 (5), .
(doi:10.1210/jc.2005-2077).
Abstract
Context: Experimental studies in animals show that adverse prenatal environments lead to lifelong alterations in the activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis which mediates the stress response through secretion of glucocorticoid hormones. The extent to which such prenatal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis adaptations occur in humans is unknown.
Objective: To determine whether smaller but otherwise healthy term babies are more likely to demonstrate increased glucocorticoid responses to psychological stress in childhood.
Design & Participants: A cross-sectional study of 68 boys and 72 girls (aged 7-9 yr) who have been followed since 12 weeks of gestation when their mothers took part in a study of healthy children born in Southampton, UK. Main outcome measure: Salivary cortisol responses to psychological stress.
Results: In boys, birth weight was inversely related to salivary cortisol responses to stress (r = -0.56, P < 0.001) but not to morning cortisol levels while in girls, morning peak cortisol was inversely related to birth weight (r = -0.36, P < 0.05). These associations were independent of gestational age and potential confounding factors including obesity, social class and educational achievement.
Conclusions: This study suggests that processes occurring during fetal life, resulting in smaller newborns, have a lasting effect on adrenocortical responses to stress in boys and on basal adrenocortical activity in girls. Given the known associations between small alterations in adrenocortical activity and features of the metabolic syndrome such as raised blood pressure and glucose intolerance, these effects warrant further investigation of their potential impact on the future health of pre-pubertal children.
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Published date: 2006
Keywords:
aged, birth, birth weight, blood, childhood, cross-sectional studies, environment, fetal, gestational age, glucose, growth, health, human, humans, mothers, stress, syndrome, weight
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 44233
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/44233
ISSN: 0021-972X
PURE UUID: 2d3675f0-0068-43a3-a36b-b2b908dfae93
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Date deposited: 20 Feb 2007
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:50
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Contributors
Author:
Alexander Jones
Author:
Peter Wood
Author:
Peter Goulden
Author:
David I.W. Phillips
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