Maternal history of maltreatment interacts with DNA methylation patterns to predict infant temperament

IF 3.4 2区心理学 Q1 FAMILY STUDIES

Child Abuse & Neglect Pub Date : 2025-09-19 DOI:10.1016/j.chiabu.2025.107650

Kendall C. Parks , Jessica L. Buthmann , Ai Ling Teh , Li Chen , Helen Y. Chen , Ian H. Gotlib

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background

Maternal childhood maltreatment (CM) has been associated with subsequent difficult infant temperament. Further, maternal CM and maladaptive infant outcomes have each been linked, separately, to increased methylation in umbilical cord blood of CpG sites in genes related to the stress response and inflammatory markers. Researchers have not yet examined the nature of the interactions of these factors or whether DNA methylation (DNAm) mediates or moderates the association of maternal CM with infant temperament.

Objective

We tested whether DNAm mediates or moderates the association between maternal CM and infant temperament.

Participants and setting

Longitudinal data from 144 mother-infant dyads were analyzed.

Methods

DNAm in umbilical cord blood, history of maternal CM, and infant temperament were assessed at age three months. Principal components analysis identified one methylation component with CpG sites related to the following hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis genes: ADRA1B, CRHBP, CREBBP, HSD11B1, HTR2A, NCOR2, and NR3C1.

Results

Higher DNAm levels were associated with stronger effects of maternal CM, driven in particular by maternal childhood abuse, on difficult infant temperament.

Conclusions

These findings highlight the complexity of the relations among maternal CM, epigenetic modifications to the stress response, and infant temperament. Infants of mothers who experienced more CM, particularly abuse, exhibited more difficult temperament, a relation that was moderated by heightened methylation of HPA-axis-related CpG sites related to CM. This methylation pattern may reflect an elevated stress response that is altered by maternal CM, suggesting a fetal programming formulation that should be tested more explicitly and systematically in future research.

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母亲虐待史与DNA甲基化模式相互作用，预测婴儿气质。

背景：母亲童年虐待（CM）与随后的婴儿气质困难有关。此外，母体CM和婴儿适应不良的结果分别与脐带血中与应激反应和炎症标志物相关的基因中CpG位点甲基化增加有关。研究人员尚未研究这些因素相互作用的本质，或者DNA甲基化（DNAm）是否介导或调节母体CM与婴儿气质的关联。目的：检验dna是否介导或调节母体CM与婴儿气质的关系。参与者和环境：对144对母婴的纵向数据进行了分析。方法：3月龄时测定脐带血dna、产妇CM史、婴儿气质。主成分分析发现了一个与以下下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴基因相关的CpG位点甲基化成分：ADRA1B、CRHBP、CREBBP、HSD11B1、HTR2A、NCOR2和NR3C1。结果：较高的DNAm水平与母亲CM（特别是由母亲童年虐待驱动）对困难婴儿气质的更强影响相关。结论：这些发现突出了母亲CM、应激反应的表观遗传修饰和婴儿气质之间关系的复杂性。母亲经历更多CM，特别是虐待，其婴儿表现出更困难的气质，这一关系被与CM相关的hpa -轴相关的CpG位点甲基化升高所缓和。这种甲基化模式可能反映了母亲CM改变了应激反应的升高，这表明在未来的研究中应该更明确和系统地测试胎儿编程公式。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Child Abuse & Neglect Multiple-

CiteScore

7.40

自引率

10.40%

发文量

397

期刊介绍： Official Publication of the International Society for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. Child Abuse & Neglect The International Journal, provides an international, multidisciplinary forum on all aspects of child abuse and neglect, with special emphasis on prevention and treatment; the scope extends further to all those aspects of life which either favor or hinder child development. While contributions will primarily be from the fields of psychology, psychiatry, social work, medicine, nursing, law enforcement, legislature, education, and anthropology, the Journal encourages the concerned lay individual and child-oriented advocate organizations to contribute.