ReviewEarly Life Programming and Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Section snippets
Schizophrenia
Prenatal and early life events have been associated with the development of schizophrenia. In support of a temporal specificity to the effects of stress on long-term outcome in neurodevelopmental disorders, a recent epidemiological study reported a significant association between maternal stress experienced during the first trimester of pregnancy with an increased risk of schizophrenia in male offspring (7). Prospective birth cohort studies have suggested that such stress exposures act by
Programming Effects of Maternal Diet and Early Nutrition
Not surprisingly, maternal nutrition alone or in combination with other prenatal determinants has been identified as a likely factor involved in the programming of offspring disease risk (55). Recent epidemiological studies from the Dutch Hunger Winter and the 1959 to 1961 Chinese famines have provided convincing evidence that prenatal undernutrition increases the risk of schizophrenia twofold in adult life (56, 57). A variety of scenarios may explain these outcomes, including epigenetic
What Does Sex Have to Do with It?
One area of emphasis that has not been well examined or discussed in early life programming is that of the role or involvement of sex in disease vulnerability, presentation, and outcome. Why do some neurodevelopmental disorders predominate in male subjects and others in female subjects? Numerous neurodevelopmental diseases exhibit such a sex bias: for example, women present with affective disorders at two to three times the rate of men, autism affects four times as many boys as girls, and the
Epigenetic Mechanisms for Stable Behavioral Modification
Studies in adult animal models have used molecular and pharmacological methodologies to identify potential genes and mechanisms involved in disease programming. For example, histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, which are thought to promote gene transcription, produce antidepressant-like effects in rodent models of chronic stress such as social defeat (78). Chronic exposure of inbred mice to social defeat stress induces long-lasting behavioral abnormalities that are reminiscent of depression
Conclusions
At the crossroads of the developing brain and the perturbations poised to promote any deviation from this norm may lay the programming events contributing to disease susceptibility or resistance. Studies aimed at this level afford us a great opportunity to define disease mechanisms and identify novel targets in therapy and prevention. The interaction of the clinical, epidemiological, and basic science communities is essential in evaluation of study outcomes and in defining future directions and
References (80)
- et al.
Endophenotypes: Bridging genomic complexity and disorder heterogeneity
Biol Psychiatry
(2009) - et al.
Decoding the epigenetic language of neuronal plasticity
Neuron
(2008) Experience-dependent epigenetic modifications in the central nervous system
Biol Psychiatry
(2009)- et al.
Maternal cytokine levels during pregnancy and adult psychosis
Brain Behav Immun
(2001) - et al.
Prenatal infection and cavum septum pellucidum in adult schizophrenia
Schizophr Res
(2009) Sex, hormones and affective arousal circuitry dysfunction in schizophrenia
Horm Behav
(2006)- et al.
Hypothalamic abnormalities in schizophrenia: Sex effects and genetic vulnerability
Biol Psychiatry
(2007) Neuroendocrine and immune influences on the CNS: It's a matter of sex
Neuron
(2009)- et al.
Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adultsThe Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study
Am J Prev Med
(1998) - et al.
The link between childhood trauma and depression: Insights from HPA axis studies in humans
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(2008)
Mild early life stress enhances prefrontal-dependent response inhibition in monkeys
Biol Psychiatry
Neurobiology of depression
Neuron
Epigenetic influences on brain development and plasticity
Curr Opin Neurobiol
Differential effects of neonatal handling on early life infection-induced alterations in cognition in adulthood
Brain Behav Immun
A behavioural characterization of neonatal infection-facilitated memory impairment in adult rats
Behav Brain Res
Genetic polymorphisms in methyl-group metabolism and epigenetics: Lessons from humans and mouse models
Brain Res
Hypothalamic substrates of metabolic imprinting
Physiol Behav
Prenatal protein deprivation alters dopamine-mediated behaviors and dopaminergic and glutamatergic receptor binding
Brain Res
Epigenetic mechanisms in the development of type 2 diabetes
Trends Endocrinol Metab
A sexually dimorphic ratio of orbitofrontal to amygdala volume is altered in schizophrenia
Biol Psychiatry
Molecular adaptations underlying susceptibility and resistance to social defeat in brain reward regions
Cell
Perceptions of epigenetics
Nature
Epigenetic inheritance in mammals: Evidence for the impact of adverse environmental effects
Neurobiol Dis
Epigenetic regulation in psychiatric disorders
Nat Rev Neurosci
Higher risk of offspring schizophrenia following antenatal maternal exposure to severe adverse life events
Arch Gen Psychiatry
Maternal infections and subsequent psychosis among offspring
Arch Gen Psychiatry
A prospective cohort study of genetic and perinatal influences in the etiology of schizophrenia
Schizophr Bull
Fetal hypoxia and structural brain abnormalities in schizophrenic patients, their siblings, and controls
Arch Gen Psychiatry
The Dutch famine and schizophrenia spectrum disorders
Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol
Latent effects of prenatal malnutrition on adult health: The example of schizophrenia
Ann N Y Acad Sci
Hypoxic-ischemia-related fetal/neonatal complications and risk of schizophrenia and other nonaffective psychoses: A 19-year longitudinal study
Am J Psychiatry
Prenatal exposure to maternal infection and executive dysfunction in adult schizophrenia
Am J Psychiatry
Examining the intersection of sex and stress in modelling neuropsychiatric disorders
J Neuroendocrinol
Developmental precursors of affective illness in a general population birth cohort
Arch Gen Psychiatry
Early risk factors and adult person—environment relationships in affective disorder
Psychol Med
Adult major affective disorder after prenatal exposure to an influenza epidemic
Arch Gen Psychiatry
Increased risk of affective disorders in males after second trimester prenatal exposure to the Dutch hunger winter of 1944–45
Br J Psychiatry
Further evidence of relation between prenatal famine and major affective disorder
Am J Psychiatry
Sex differences in stress response circuitry activation dependent on female hormonal cycle
J Neurosci
The neurobiological toll of child abuse and neglect
Trauma Violence Abuse
Cited by (739)
LAT1-dependent placental methionine uptake is a key player in fetal programming of metabolic disease
2024, Metabolism: Clinical and ExperimentalPrenatal and postnatal influences on behavioral development in a mouse model of preconceptional stress
2024, Neurobiology of StressFetal CCL2 signaling mediates offspring social behavior and recapitulates effects of prenatal stress
2024, Brain, Behavior, and Immunity