Doctoral Dissertation Research: Effect of intrauterine environment on newborn telomere length

该项目将研究新生儿及其母亲的端粒长度，以了解母亲压力如何影响婴儿生物学。端粒是细胞内的结构，它保护和稳定染色体的末端，并在生命过程中随着环境的变化而改变长度。最常见的相互作用是由心理和社会心理压力引起的端粒缩短。端粒缩短反过来又与许多疾病有关，包括糖尿病、心脏病和多种癌症。最近出现的一些关于母亲压力代际影响的最令人兴奋的结果表明，在子宫内暴露的婴儿在出生时往往表现出较短的端粒长度（TL）。这一点尤其突出，因为事实证明，母亲在怀孕期间的健康状况不仅会直接影响到孩子出生时的健康状况，而且会影响到孩子成年后的健康状况。随着慢性压力和压力介导的疾病在我国变得越来越普遍，怀孕期间的创伤和压力暴露可能通过出生时端粒缩短而改变儿童的健康结果，这一想法具有直接的公共卫生相关性。该项目还将支持学生培训和国际合作。在这项研究中，调查人员将测量来自刚果民主共和国东部（DRC）的100名新母亲和婴儿的TL，这是一个战争肆虐了17年的地区，暴力经常被用作系统性的军事策略来恐吓平民。这些条件使刚果民主共和国东部成为全世界妇女生活压力最大、创伤最大的环境之一。通过整合通过综合人种学访谈收集的战争压力的新措施，胎儿发育期间经历的极端创伤压力与新生儿缩短TL相关的假设将得到检验。另一种可能是，压力和更长的端粒之间的联系的发现可能表明，在高度紧张的环境中生活的预适应。最后，有证据表明，某些生活方式的改变可以减缓端粒的磨损；将安排对参与研究的儿童进行随访，以便对TL进行纵向测量。

This project will study telomere length in newborns and their mothers, to understand how maternal stress affects infant biology. Telomeres are structures within cells that protect and stabilize the ends of chromosomes and change in length over the life course in response to the environment. The most frequently reported interaction is telomere shortening caused by psychological and psychosocial stress. Shortened telomeres in turn have been associated with numerous diseases including diabetes, heart disease and multiple types of cancer. Some of the most exciting results to emerge recently about the intergenerational effects of maternal stress show evidence that babies exposed in utero tend to exhibit shorter telomere length (TL) at birth. This is particularly salient, as a mother's health during pregnancy has been shown to directly affect the health outcomes of her children not only at birth, but through to adulthood. As chronic stress and stress-mediated diseases are becoming increasingly prevalent in our country, the idea that trauma and stress exposure during pregnancy can create changes in a child's health outcomes, potentially through shorter telomeres at birth, has immediate public health relevance. The project will also support student training and international collaborations. In this study the investigators will measure the TL of 100 new mothers and babies from the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a region where war has raged for 17 years, and violence is often utilized as a systematic military tactic to intimidate the civilian population. These conditions make eastern DRC among the most stressful and traumatic environments for women to live in worldwide. By incorporating novel measures of war stress gathered via comprehensive ethnographic interviews, the hypothesis that extreme traumatic stress experienced during fetal development is associated with shortened newborn TL will be tested. Alternatively, the discovery of an association between stress and longer telomeres could suggest a pre-adaptation for life in a highly stressful environment. Finally, there is evidence that telomere attrition can be slowed by certain lifestyle changes; follow-ups will be scheduled with the children in the study to allow for TL to be measured longitudinally.