Prenatal maternal stress has lasting effects on offspring

caroline.zentner — Wed, 05 Mar 2025 16:39:36 +0000

A ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge research study has shown that the effects of prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) can last for generations.

Drs. Gerlinde Metz and Stephanie King and a team of researchers used a rat model to examine the consequences of PNMS across four generations.

Dr. Gerlinde Metz

“Prenatal maternal stress is a major driver of adverse pregnancy outcomes and a risk factor for chronic illness in adulthood,” says Metz. “The present study builds on our earlier finding that transgenerational and multigenerational PNMS causes adverse pregnancy outcomes and impaired development in offspring.”

The first- and second-generation mothers experienced shorter pregnancies and altered behaviours, and their pups had reduced weight and delayed sensorimotor development.

“In our new study, we found that the first generation of offspring revealed a moderate impact of PNMS, but we saw drastic changes in the second and third generations,” says Metz.

The disruption involved genes and biological pathways associated with neurological and psychiatric diseases, which may help explain why some non-genetic diseases carry a risk in some families. The placenta typically prevents fetal exposure to maternal stress hormones, but PNMS may affect the balance. If the stress occurs during a critical time of development, it can affect the eggs and sperm and potentially the health of future generations.

“Our study demonstrates the compounding consequences of PNMS across generations,” says Metz. “It also suggests the placenta could be a source of predictive biomarkers associated with neurodevelopmental health.”

Dr. Stephanie King

Using the placenta to identify markers associated with prenatal stress could lead to therapeutic interventions in early life that could mitigate the impact of some psychological and neurological diseases.

King, the lead author of the study and now an assistant professor and research director at St. Matthews ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ School of Medicine in the Cayman Islands, states that one of the most exciting aspects of this study is the identification of the placenta as a potential noninvasive biomarker for predicting a child’s neurodevelopmental health.

“We saw many of the same shifts in the placenta mirrored in the brain,” says King. “By analyzing placental tissue, we can gain insights into how prenatal stress can predispose individuals to mental or physical health issues later in life.

“Our findings underscore the importance of considering environmental stressors, like maternal stress, as key contributors to the rising rates of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. This research opens new avenues for early intervention and prevention strategies, potentially helping to reduce the transgenerational transmission of these risks.”

U of L post-doc examines long-term effects of environmental exposures during pregnancy, including glyphosate

caroline.zentner — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 20:44:39 +0000

Dr. Stephanie King, a post-doctoral fellow at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, has long been interested in the effects of stress on the developing fetus and how those effects show up in subsequent generations.

While a PhD student at Washington State ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, King was involved in a study that looked into whether glyphosate, the primary ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, increased susceptibility to disease across several generations.

“Glyphosate has been a very controversial compound in the public eye, primarily due to the creation of genetically modified Roundup-resistant strains of vegetables and legumes, like corn and soy,” says King. “Many studies have found that glyphosate appears to be safe for single exposures. However, in 2019, there were several studies that called its safety into question.”

One study showed an increased risk of developing Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in individuals with prolonged high-dose exposure to glyphosate, such as agricultural workers. Another study found people living within one kilometre of where glyphosate was sprayed had an increased risk of dying from Parkinson’s disease below the age of 75.

“We really wanted to investigate things further, especially because it is a very contentious compound,” says King.

Pregnant rats were exposed to a single non-toxic dose of glyphosate during the time when the gonads — the testes and ovaries — were developing in the fetus. Then these rats were bred out for three generations, none of which had any exposure to glyphosate. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the rats who were initially exposed to glyphosate were then examined for various factors, such as size of litter, weight at weaning and any abnormalities. Among the results, the researchers found a significant increase in difficult labours in the female offspring of the second and third generations.

“Roughly one-third of the litters of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren had difficult labours that involved the death of the mother and/or her pups during birth or immediately after,” says King. “We also found an increase in prostate disease and ovarian disease. In our female animals, we identified an increased susceptibility to kidney disease and, in all animals, an increased risk for obesity.”

King says the results should be interpreted with caution, as it’s very difficult to prove the same with human exposures, since many different factors, including lifestyle, are at play.

“It will take some time and more studies before we can reach a scientific consensus,” she says. “One of the primary messages from this study is that it’s important to go beyond just looking at direct exposure. Future toxicological studies should also investigate potential effects on future generations, especially in-utero exposures.”

King is now continuing her work in Dr. Gerlinde Metz’s lab at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience. Specifically, she’s looking at the effects of ancestral stress on the fetus and the placenta.

“Pregnancy is already a stressful time. Traumas like domestic violence can really affect the outcome of a pregnancy,” she says.

King has found the great-grandchildren of rats who were exposed to stress as fetuses show differences in several molecular factors and those differences are reflected in both the placenta and the fetus.

“This is fascinating because normally they express very different things,” says King. “Theoretically, that means we could use the placenta as a biomarker to have an idea of shifts that could also be taking place in the fetal brain.”

UNews - Stephanie King

Prenatal maternal stress has lasting effects on offspring

Related Topics

U of L post-doc examines long-term effects of environmental exposures during pregnancy, including glyphosate

Related Topics