# Influence of prenatal psychosocial stressors on maternal and fetal circulating miRNAs

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2020 · $652,612

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The environment experienced by a developing fetus during gestation can have profound impacts on health
outcomes throughout life. Infant growth is a significant risk factor for long-term chronic disease, particularly
later childhood risk for obesity. A better understanding of the mechanisms through which the environment can
program offspring obesity risk may help to improve risk assessment as well as provide opportunities for novel
prevention approaches. These efforts may be most needed amongst populations experiencing the greatest
health disparities, where adversities in the environment can be psychosocial, physical, and chemical in nature
and where these exposures may be acting synergistically to impact health. Epigenetic mechanisms, due to
their developmental plasticity but long-term functional role, have been posited as critical mediators of the
environment’s impact on children’s health. Non-coding RNA, and particularly, microRNA (miRNA), represent
one epigenetic mechanism that functions to control the stability of messenger RNA (mRNA) and the translation
of proteins. There is growing evidence that miRNA can act as an inter-cellular signal to modulate various
physiologic responses including metabolism and immune response. Due to these roles and their inherent
ability to effect large numbers of target genes, miRNA represent fundamental regulators with the potential for
wide-ranging consequences. We hypothesize that psychosocial, in addition to chemical stressors, in the
maternal environment impact the pattern of expression of maternal and fetal miRNA and that the expression of
these miRNA can impact critical newborn and early life health outcomes. We will examine this hypothesis
using state-of-the-art technologies to characterize the full repertoire of miRNA in the Maternal and
Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) pregnancy cohort, which focuses
on low income Hispanic women in Los Angeles county. The MADRES cohort is collecting extensive data on
actual objective stressors (negative life events, past trauma, neighborhood disorder) and the psychological
response to stress (perceived stress and depression symptoms) along with socio-demographic information to
comprehensively understand the extent of psychosocial stress experienced in this population. This proposal
will measure miRNA in already collected peripheral blood samples 1st and 3rd trimesters, cord blood samples
at birth, and will support the effort to collect placental samples for additional miRNA analysis. The main aims of
the proposal will be to 1) examine how maternal psychosocial stress impacts the pattern of expression of
miRNA in maternal blood during pregnancy, 2) delineate how maternal circulating miRNA impact newborn
health outcomes including birth weight and small-for-gestational birth, and 3) examine the relationship between
patterns of expression of miRNA in placental tissue and in cord blood to those in maternal serum. Results of
this s...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9860935
- **Project number:** 5R01MD011698-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Carrie Van Doren Breton
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $652,612
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-07-26 → 2022-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9860935

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9860935, Influence of prenatal psychosocial stressors on maternal and fetal circulating miRNAs (5R01MD011698-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9860935. Licensed CC0.

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