Consequences of periconceptional events (COPE) for post-natal stress physiology: Integrated genetic, epigenetic and physiological analyses of fetal HPA-HPG axes programming

Main goal: To assess the effects of periconceptional maternal stress (+/- 6 weeks from conception) on the development and activity of the neuroendocrine axes regulating stress (hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis, HPAA) and reproduction (hypothalamic- pituitary-gonadal axis, HPGA) in children.

Background: Activation of the maternal HPAA around the time of conception due to psychosocial, health or energetic stressors may influence fetal development and programming of the HPAA and HPGA. One major limitation of past and
Maternal-Child Stress Model (MCHS Model): Interactions between the neuroendocrine axes regulating stress (HPAA) and reproduction (HPGA) in mothers and their children. [larger image]
© 2012 Pablo Nepomnaschy and Katrina Salvante present studies focused on the effects of prenatal stress in humans is that they begin evaluating prenatal exposures when pregnancies are clinically recognized (usually after gestational week 6). These studies may be missing a “critical window of vulnerability” for epigenetic programming, cells’ differentiation and migration which should have important effects for the development of critical tissues and endocrine axis including the HPAA. These developmental influences are likely to affect the post-natal phenotype.

Aims:

  1. Describe the development and activity of the HPAA, including measurements of basal cortisol levels, circadian cortisol profiles, and cortisol levels in response to stress challenge, in children resulting from pregnancies for which we have data on periconceptional maternal stress (i.e., urinary cortisol levels at +/- 6 weeks from conception)
  2. Investigate the association between periconceptional maternal stress and HPAA development and activity in children
  3. Investigate the role of periconceptional maternal HPAA activity as a modulator of child development.

NSERC logo Funding: The COPE Project is supported by an operating grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Career Investigator Scholar Award, and the Human Evolutionary Studies Program at Simon Fraser University, which was supported by the Simon Fraser University Community Trust Endowment Fund..