Hair cortisol as a biomarker of chronic stress in mother-infant dyads

描述(申请人提供)：这项研究的目的是为了更好地了解慢性压力对母亲和她们的婴儿的影响。妇女在分娩的第一年内容易出现慢性压力和与压力有关的疾病(如抑郁、焦虑)，众所周知，母亲的经历会对婴儿的发育产生不利影响，包括HPA轴的组织和其他与压力有关的系统。不幸的是，不仅关于慢性压力对母亲和婴儿影响的研究很少，而且在任何人群中衡量慢性压力都是有问题的。在婴儿等人群中评估慢性压力尤其困难，因为其他人的主观报告很难确定婴儿的经历。对慢性应激的生物学测量通常依赖于皮质醇基础水平的测量。然而，唾液、血液和尿液中皮质醇的评估以及这些测量方法捕捉多个时间点的要求很可能无法充分捕捉他们声称要测量的慢性应激水平。该项目的目标是评估头发皮质醇作为母婴慢性应激的生物标记物的使用。头发皮质醇是一种新兴的生物标志物，可能是测量HPA活性的有效方法，因为与其他来源的皮质醇测量相比，它可以提供更长的慢性应激追溯日历(例如，3至6个月)。从实用的角度来看，头发皮质醇的采样和存储可能没有目前从唾液、血液或尿液中收集皮质醇所需的程序那么繁琐。头发皮质醇可能会提供 这是此类应激相关疾病的有效标记物，也是确定婴儿日后出现发育问题风险的重要工具。为了实现我们的目标，我们将使用纵向设计，遵循两个队列：高风险组(n=80)和低风险组(n=80)。 产后9个月(T1)和12个月(T2)的双胎。通过使用最新的头发皮质醇采样和分析程序，我们预计在这些时间点从母亲和婴儿身上采集的头发将提供过去3个月(T1：6-9个月，T2：9-12个月)的皮质醇追溯数据。报告的慢性压力、抑郁和焦虑症状以及创伤暴露也将通过问卷和访谈从母亲那里收集。我们计划计算不同人群头发皮质醇的差异，母亲和婴儿头发皮质醇之间的关联，以及头发皮质醇水平与报告的慢性压力的关联。我们 预计“高风险”组的皮质醇水平将高于“低风险”组，母亲和婴儿的头发皮质醇水平呈正相关，头发皮质醇与报告的慢性压力呈正相关。由于头发皮质醇是一种新的测量方法，从未被用于母婴配对，我们将跟踪参与者的招募比率。该项目有可能为慢性压力建立一个有用和有效的生物标记物，同时推动我们的 了解导致母婴慢性应激和不良后果的机制(因素和调节因素)。 公共卫生相关性：母亲及其婴儿经历的慢性压力对以后的心理结果有严重影响。然而，这种类型的压力很难评估。这个拟议的项目探索了头发皮质醇作为一种测量母亲和婴儿慢性压力的方法。如果成功，这种方法将大大增加我们对行为和生理调节系统发展的理解，以及健康或有可能出现后续问题(例如，情感障碍、行为问题)的母亲和婴儿之间的差异。这些知识将为母亲和婴儿的评估和干预战略提供依据。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this study is to better understand the effects of chronic stress on mothers and their infants. Women are prone to chronic stress and stress-related disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety) within the first year of giving birth, and thee maternal experiences are known to have an adverse effect on infants' development including the organization of their HPA axis and other stress related systems. Unfortunately,, not only are there few studies pertaining to the effects of chronic stress on mothers and infants, but the measurement of chronic stress in any population is problematic. Assessing chronic stress is particularly difficult in populations such as infants, since subjective report from others falls shrt of identifying the infants' experience. Biological measures of chronic stress often rely on measures of basal levels of cortisol. However, it is quite possible that assessments of cortisol from saliva, blood, and urine and the requirement with these measures to capture multiple time points do not adequately capture the chronic levels of stress that they purport to measure. The goal of this project is to evaluate the use of hair cortisol as a biomarker for chronic stress in mother-infant dyads. Hair cortisol is an emerging biomarker that may be an effective method for measuring HPA activity, as it can provide a longer retrospective calendar (e.g., 3- to 6-months) of chronic stress compared with measures of cortisol from other sources. From a practical standpoint, the sampling and storage of hair cortisol may be less cumbersome than the current procedures required from cortisol collected from saliva, blood, or urine. Hair cortisol may provide an effective marker for such stress related disorders and be an important tool for determining risk of later developmental problems among infants. To accomplish our goal, we will use a longitudinal design that follows two cohorts "high risk" (n=80) and "low risk" (n=80) mother-infant dyads at 9 months (T1) and 12 months (T2) postpartum. By using up-to-date hair cortisol sampling and assay procedures, we expect that the hair sampled from mothers and infants at these time points will provide retrospective cortisol data from the previous 3 months (T1: 6-9 months, T2: 9-12 months). Reported chronic stress, depression and anxiety symptoms, and trauma exposure will also be collected from the mother through questionnaires and interviews. We plan to calculate differences in hair cortisol across groups, associations between mother and infant hair cortisol, and associations of hair cortisol levels with reported chronic stress. We expect the "high risk" group to have higher levels of cortisol than the "low risk" group, positive associations of the hair cortisol levels of mothers and infants, and positive associations of the hair cortisol and reported chronic stress. Because hair cortisol is a new measure and has never been used with mother-infant dyads, we will track participant recruitment rates. This project has the potential to establish a useful and efficient biomarker for chronic stress while propelling our understanding of the mechanisms (factors and moderators) that underlie chronic stress and adverse outcomes in mothers and infants. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Chronic stress experienced by mothers and their infants has a severe impact on later psychological outcomes. However, this type of stress is difficult to assess. The proposed project explores the use of hair cortisol as a measure for chronic stress in mothers and infants. If successful, this method will greatly increase our understanding of the development of behavioral and physiological regulatory systems and the difference between mothers and infants who are healthy or at-risk for later problems (e.g., affective disorders, behavioral problems). This knowledge will inform assessment and intervention strategies for mothers and infants.