The impact of maternal childhood adversities on maternal nutrition during the gestacional period and on the brain volume of the offspring

• Grant number: 24/07591-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Agreement: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Principal Investigator: Andrea Parolin Jackowski
• Grantee: Maria Luísa Gomes Soares
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 19/21612-0 - Maternal adversity, inflammation, and neurodevelopment: how intergenerational processes perpetuate disadvantage in a low-resource setting, AP.TEM

Abstract

Adverse childhood events (ACEs) include factors such as emotional and physical abuse, multiple episodes of violence and sexual abuse, poverty, and parental mental health. Such exposure can result in harm to the development of children and adolescents, such as neurodevelopment, increasing the risk of developing depressive and anxiety disorders throughout life. There is emerging evidence suggesting that the neurobiological effects of stress vary depending on the time, intensity of exposure and developmental stage at which it occurs. Thus, perinatal stress situations have been associated with negative outcomes in the lives of the offsrping, such as depression and/or anxiety that can manifest throughout their lives. Studies show that ACEs, in the long term, can impact nutrient intake, which can have an impact on the individual's health in adulthood. Furthermore, studies point to stress as a factor affecting the nutrition process, including during the gestational period. In addition to the effects that ACEs have on the directly exposed individual, their effects can be transmitted to that individual's offspring, which is called intergenerational transmission of trauma. Evidence shows that children and newborns living in unhealthy situations, in shelters, had head circumferences below expected values, persisting even after relocation to a new family. There are also effects of adverse events in childhood on neurodevelopment, causing both functional and structural brain changes. The objective of this project is to evaluate whether there is an association between adverse events in maternal childhood and maternal nutrient intake during pregnancy, brain volume and head circumference of offspring in the first years of life.