Immediate postpartum depression and the NT-3 gene

Abstract

Introduction: Postpartum depression has a prevalence range from 6.5% to 12.9%. The NT-3 gene is involved in alterations in patients with mood disorders. Purpose: The aim was to describe a possible correlation between the NT-3 expression and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Material and Methods: It was a clinical, comparative, prospective and cross-sectional study. Puerperal women were asked to answer the EPDS while mRNA was extracted from peripheral blood and through the qPCR the relative expression of NT-3 was determined using the delta-delta- (CT) method (2-ΔΔCT). Results and Discussion: The NT-3 expression was quantified in 5 patients with depression and 6 healthy women. A fold change of 1.7 was obtained when the NT-3 is present in the group with depression in relation to the control group. Also, a positive significant correlation was found between the gene relative expression and the EPDS score (r2 = 0.60516, p = 0.04853). The fold change when the NT-3 is expressed means a risk to develop puerperal depression in our population, which is visualized as an inevitable disease for a wide range of patients. Conclusion: It was concluded that the NT-3 gene is effectively correlated with the EPDS score and explains, in part, a subgroup of patients that will develop this health complication.