2007 Final Program - Society of Behavioral Medicine

SOCIETY of BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE
Rapid Communications Posters Thursday, March 22, 2007 • 6:30 PM-8:00 PM • Poster Session B
2445
ELEVATED INFLAMMATORY CYTOKINES AND CORTISOL
ARE RELATED TO PRENATAL RISK FACTORS FOR POOR
PREGNANCY OUTCOME
Mary Coussons-Read, PhD, 1 Mark L. Laudenslager, PhD 1 and Janet
DiPietro, PhD 2
1
University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center,
Denver, CO and 2 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD.
Stress can have meaningful consequences for pregnancy, and recent
data indicate a possible role for cytokines and other inflammatory
mediators in these effects. Previous studies, however, have not
linked proinflammatory cytokines during pregnancy to increased
risk of poor pregnancy outcomes. The present study began to
develop this connection by examining relationships between
prenatal risk factors, levels of IL-6, TNF-a and IL-10, estriol, and
C-reactive protein (CRP), and cortisol. Participants were 58 low
risk, non-smoking pregnant women carrying singleton fetuses.
Salivary cortisol was measured via EIA, serum IL-6, IL-10, and
TNF-a were assessed using ELISA, and serum estriol and C-reactive
protein were measured with EIA at 36 weeks’ gestation. Data
regarding pregnancy course, maternal illnesses, and pregnancy
outcomes were prospectively collected. Significant elevations in
the proinflammatory cytokine TNF-a were evident in women who
reported systemic illnesses (colds, flu, and UTIs) during pregnancy,
and increased incidence of bleeding during pregnancy and maternal
anemia were associated with increases in TNF-a and CRP. None of
the serum markers were significantly related to pregnancy duration,
ponderal index, or Apgar scores. There were significant correlations
between TNF-a and IL-6 and cortisol, a finding that has been
reported in non-pregnant populations, but not in pregnant women.
Together, these data suggest that serum markers of inflammation
are related to increased incidence of maternal anemia and bleeding
in pregnancy and are associated with incidence of maternal illnesses
during pregnancy and elevations in cortisol, suggesting a possible
modulatory role for illness and/or stress-related endocrine activity
in the effects of inflammatory mediators on pregnancy outcome.
Additional data collection and analyses are necessary to better
elucidate these relationships and establish their clinical relevance.
(Supported in part by NIH awards AA013973 and HD27592).
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: Mary Coussons-Read, PhD,
University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center,
Denver, CO, 80217-3364; Mary.Coussons-Read@cudenver.edu
2446
PREDICTION OF ADVERSE NEONATAL HEALTH
OUTCOMES AMONG LOW-INCOME MOTHERS AND
THEIR INFANTS: ROLE OF PRENATAL DEPRESSION AND
CORTISOL
Guido G. Urizar, PhD 1 and Ricardo F. Muñoz, PhD 2
1
California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach, CA and
2
University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
Prior studies have suggested that elevated levels of maternal
depression and stress during pregnancy may be related to adverse
neonatal health outcomes at birth, yet few studies have prospectively
examined biological mechanisms for this association. The purpose
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of this study was to examine whether prenatal depressive symptoms
(CES-D) and salivary cortisol levels would be associated with several
neonatal health outcomes (i.e., number of birth complications,
APGAR scores, and birth weight), after controlling for prenatal
health status (e.g., presence of anemia) and number of prior
births (mean number of children = 1+1). Ninety low-income
women (82% Spanish-speaking; mean age=25+5 years), with no
major medical or substance abuse problems, were assessed during
pregnancy (mean gestational age=16+5 weeks). Adverse prenatal
and neonatal health outcomes were recorded via medical record
review following delivery. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed
that: 1) elevated depressive symptoms during pregnancy and having
fewer prior births were associated with lower infant APGAR scores
(p=.05); and 2) elevated cortisol levels during pregnancy and having
fewer prior births were associated with an increased number of birth
complications (p