The impact of maternal childhood adversities in the salivary cortisol levels of the dyad and the weight oof the offspring

• Grant number: 25/03071-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2025
• End date: January 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Andrea Parolin Jackowski
• Grantee: Rebeca Maia Souza
• 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

Exposure to adverse childhood events (ACEs) includes several factors such as emotional and physical abuse, multiple episodes of violence and sexual abuse, poverty and parental mental health. Such exposure may be associated with deleterious effects on the development of children and adolescents, triggering a cascade of neurobiological changes, which may increase the risk of developing depressive and anxiety disorders throughout life. There is emerging evidence suggesting that the neurobiological effects of stress vary across different stages of development. Thus, perinatal stress situations have been associated with negative outcomes in the lives of the offspring, such as depression and/or anxiety that can manifest throughout their lives. Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced in response to stressful situations and responsible for regulating the fight and flight response, therefore known as the "stress hormone". When cortisol remains chronically elevated in the body, it begins to exert deleterious and harmful effects on the individual, such as neurotoxic effects and metabolic changes. However, the influence of early stress, cortisol levels and the offsrping's sex, during the period of fetal development and in the first year of life, have not yet been fully elucidated. The aim of this project is to assess whether there is a association between adverse events in maternal childhood with the mother's and offspring's salivary cortisol levels and whether these levels can impact the weight of the offspring in the first months of life. (AU)