11/15/18. Bowers. Resub R01. Linking pre- and post-natal psychosocial determinants, DNA methylation, and early developmental health disparities

项目总结 尽管美国在获得医疗保健的机会和质量方面有所改善，但来自 社会经济上处于不利地位的家庭和/或少数族裔患认知障碍的风险增加 以及社交-情绪发展。事实上，贫困儿童经历发育迟缓的可能性要高出40% 与非贫困儿童有关的延误。贫困会不成比例地暴露在逆境中，包括 父母/子女心理社会压力(如接触暴力、频繁搬迁)和心理压力 造成儿童发育受损的痛苦(例如，产妇抑郁)。然而，负面的 在存在保护性因素的情况下，影响可能会减轻。虽然衡量母亲的逆境和 保护因素已被评估与儿童发展有关，这些因素的综合影响 相反的力量以及表观遗传编程的潜在相关和关键作用尚未确定。 尤其是在整个生命过程中影响最大的敏感时期。我们的 初步数据表明，母亲在两个敏感时期(产前和早产期)遭遇的逆境 对婴儿的反应系统进行表观遗传学编程，从而改变儿童的发育。我们的总体假设是 母亲一生中面临的逆境和保护因素(即母亲的心理社会经历)- 病程通过DNA甲基化导致后代认知和社会情绪发育差异 (DNaM)在多个生物途径中的基因。本研究将回顾评估与前瞻性研究相结合。 在怀孕至18个月的5次研究访问中捕获的375对母婴二人组的数据收集 出生后。该提案的具体目标是1)确定生命过程中的母亲 心理社会体验与婴儿dNaM在生命的第一年的变化 窗口，2)描述婴儿出生后第一次的母亲心理社会经历之间的联系 3)在两个时间点(1个月和1个月)确定dNaM的影响 12个月)前18个月的婴儿发育。这项研究将在一个大型的、 区域家访计划，独特的定位使我们能够通过精确的家访和 旨在减少早期发育健康差距的其他战略。

PROJECT SUMMARY Despite improvements in access and quality of health care in the United States (US), children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families and / or of minority race have an elevated risk for impaired cognitive and social-emotional development. Indeed, children in poverty are 40% more likely to experience developmental delays relative to children not in poverty. Poverty engenders disproportionate exposure to adversity including parental/child psychosocial stressors (such as, exposure to violence, frequent relocation) and psychological distress (such as, maternal depression) that contribute to impaired childhood development. However, negative effects may be mitigated in the presence of protective factors. While measures of maternal adversity and protective factors have been evaluated in association with child development, the combined effects of these opposing forces and the potentially related and critical role of epigenetic programming have not been determined. In particular, at sensitive periods across the life-course when their effects have the strongest impact. Our preliminary data suggest that maternal adversity during two sensitive time periods (prenatally and early life) epigenetically program infant response systems, thereby altering child development. Our overall hypothesis is that maternal adversity and protective factors (i.e., maternal psychosocial experience) faced across the life- course contribute to offspring cognitive and social-emotional developmental disparities through DNA methylation (DNAm) of genes in multiple biologic pathways. This study combines retrospective assessment and prospective data collection on 375 mother-infant dyads captured in 5 study visits spanning pregnancy through 18 months postnatal. The specific aims of the proposal are 1) determine the association between the life-course maternal psychosocial experience and the change in infant DNAm during the first year of life, a sensitive developmental window, 2) characterize the association between postnatal maternal psychosocial experiences in the infant’s first year of life and infant DNAm at one year, and 3) determine the impact of DNAm at two time points (1 month and 12 months) of infant development across the first 18 months. This research will be conducted within a large, regional home visiting program, uniquely positioning us to translate findings through precision home visiting and additional strategies aimed at reducing early developmental health disparities.