Cited by 245Birth, Development, and HealthEpigenetics and DNA MethylationMaternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum

Maternal psychosocial stress during pregnancy alters the epigenetic signature of the glucocorticoid receptor gene promoter in their offspring: A meta-analysis

Open access
Palma-Gudiel, H, Córdova-Palomera, A, Eixarch, E, Deuschle, M, Fañanás, L·2015·Epigenetics

Abstract

Prenatal stress has been widely associated with a number of short- and long-term pathological outcomes. Epigenetic mechanisms are thought to partially mediate these environmental insults into the fetal physiology. One of the main targets of developmental programming is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis as it is the main regulator of the stress response. Accordingly, an increasing number of researchers have recently focused on the putative association between DNA methylation at the glucocorticoid receptor gene (NR3C1) and prenatal stress, among other types of psychosocial stress. The current study aims to systematically review and meta-analyze the existing evidence linking several forms of prenatal stress with DNA methylation at the region 1F of the NR3C1 gene. The inclusion of relevant articles allowed combining empirical evidence from 977 individuals by meta-analytic techniques, whose methylation assessments showed overlap across 5 consecutive CpG sites (GRCh37/hg19 chr5:142,783,607-142,783,639). From this information, methylation levels at CpG site 36 displayed a significant correlation to prenatal stress (r = 0.14, 95% CI: 0.05-0.23, P = 0.002). This result supports the proposed association between a specific CpG site located at the NR3C1 promoter and prenatal stress. Several confounders, such as gender, methylation at other glucocorticoid-related genes, and adjustment for pharmacological treatments during pregnancy, should be taken into account in further studies.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1080/15592294.2015.1088630

Cites

65 of 66 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • There is consistent evidence for a link between pregnancy stress (including perceived stress, anxiety, depression, and natural disasters) and increased DNA methylation of NR3C1 in newborns.

    “There is now consistent evidence for a link between pregnancy stress (including perceived stress, anxiety, depression, and natural disasters) and increased DNA methylation of NR3C1 in newborns [55,56], even though the studies have been quite heterogeneous in terms of the type of exposure and tissue investigated (i.e., cord blood, peripheral blood, placenta, buccal swabs).”

    From Biological Embedding of Early-Life Adversity and a Scoping Review of the Evidence for Intergenerational Epigenetic Transmission of Stress and Trauma in Humans (2023) · cites this paper as [55]

    The Results ('Eligibility of studies and specific CpG sites to be metaanalyzed'; page unavailable) report increased offspring NR3C1 methylation after prenatal stress, but the significant association is limited to CpG site 36, not the other sites tested. The studies pooled anxious-depressive symptoms and exposure to violence, not natural disasters; the Discussion also notes that one study assessed children rather than newborns. Thus the claim is broader than this paper's finding. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • NR3C1 has been linked to prenatal stress.

    “Notwithstanding, NR3C1 has been linked to prenatal stress [140] and is the most studied gene to date related to abuse and neglect [141].”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Palma-Gudiel, H., Córdova-Palomera, A., Eixarch, E., Deuschle, M., & Fañanás, L.
Affiliations
  • Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona (ES)
  • University of Mannheim (DE)
  • Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (ES)
Corresponding author
Fañanás, L
Venue
Epigenetics
Published
2015-09
Volume
10
Issue
10
Pages
893-902
ISSN
  • 1559-2294 (ISSN-L)
  • 1559-2308
OpenAlex
W1851806939
Cited by
240
References
65
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 21 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 22 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 12
FWCI
3.49
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Epigenetics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • Universitat Pompeu Fabra
  • University of Reading
  • Generalitat de Catalunya (2014SGR1636)
  • Departament d'Innovació, Universitats i Empresa, Generalitat de Catalunya
  • Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PIM2010ERN-00642, SAF2008-05674-C03-01)
  • Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental
Topics
  • 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
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
Keywords
prenatal stress, maternal psychosocial stress, glucocorticoid receptor, NR3C1, DNA methylation, promoter methylation, CpG sites, developmental programming, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, pregnancy
MeSH terms
Female, Humans, Male, Pituitary-Adrenal System, Pregnancy, Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects, Promoter Regions, Genetic, Receptors, Glucocorticoid, Stress, Psychological, CpG Islands, DNA Methylation, Epigenesis, Genetic

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review