Parental Advisory: Maternal and Paternal Stress Can Impact Offspring Neurodevelopment
Open accessAbstract
Parental stress exposures are implicated in the risk for offspring neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, prompting critical examination of preconception and prenatal periods as vulnerable to environmental insults such as stress. Evidence from human studies and animal models demonstrates the influence that both maternal and paternal stress exposures have in changing the course of offspring brain development. Mechanistic examination of modes of intergenerational transmission of exposure during pregnancy has pointed to alterations in placental signaling, including changes in inflammatory, nutrient-sensing, and epigenetic pathways. Transmission of preconception paternal stress exposure is associated with changes in epigenetic marks in sperm, with a primary focus on the reprogramming of DNA methylation, histone posttranslational modifications, and small noncoding RNAs. In this review, we discuss evidence supporting the important contribution of intergenerational parental stress in offspring neurodevelopment and disease risk, and the currently known epigenetic mechanisms underlying this transmission.
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References 128 · Cited by 241
- Authors
- Chan, J. C., Nugent, B. M., & Bale, T. L.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bale, Tracy L.
- Venue
- Biological Psychiatry
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-05
- Volume
- 83
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 886-894
- ISSN
- 0006-3223 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5899063
- OpenAlex
- W2762894765
- Cited by
- 241
- References
- 128
- Citations by year
- 2026: 31 · 2025: 20 · 2024: 35 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 13
- FWCI
- 3.29
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Biological Psychiatry (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Birth, Development, and Health
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Epigenetics and DNA Methylation
- Keywords
- parental stress, maternal stress, paternal stress, offspring neurodevelopment, intergenerational transmission, epigenetics, DNA methylation, histone modifications, non-coding RNA, prenatal exposure, preconception exposure, neuropsychiatric disorders, brain development
- MeSH terms
- Female, Humans, Parent-Child Relations, Parents, Pregnancy, Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects, Stress, Psychological, Neurodevelopmental Disorders
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