PSYCH 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Low Birth Weight, Methylation, Infant
Document Summary
Nutritional exposures during critical periods of offspring development have epigenetic and physiological effects that persist through the life course. Epigenetic effects potentially transcend multiple generations of offspring. Maternal depression during pregnancy predicted stress reactivity and methylation in infants at 3 months. Methylation changes seen in males following maternal separation in early life were also seen in their female offspring. Exposure to airborne pollutants during pregnancy can modify epigenetic markers in offspring, thereby modifying risk for various diseases at birth. Ex: cigarette smoke, air pollution from traffic exhaust. Design studies to reverse adverse impact of early life stress (rather than avoid) Promotion of breastfeeding to reverse the negative impacts of some stressors experiences prior to birth. Some negative metabolic effects of prenatal undernutrition in mice can be reverse by exposure to the fat-derived hormone leptin immediately after birth. This hormone is found in breast milk and has long term effects on offspring metabolism. If someone has a limited intrauterine environment .
