Abstract
Although the link between chronic stress and the development of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases of adulthood has been known for some time, there is growing recognition that early environmental influences may result in developmental programming via epigenetic mechanisms, thereby affecting the developmental trajectory of disease progression. Previous studies support the idea that offspring of Holocaust survivors may have been subjected to early developmental programming. We evaluated the relationship between parental exposure to the Holocaust and self-reported health ratings and disorders made by their adult offspring (i.e., second generation Holocaust survivors). A total of 137 subjects were evaluated. Regression analyses demonstrated that maternal but not paternal exposure to the Holocaust was related to poorer subjective impressions of emotional and physical health. This relationship was diminished when the offspring’s own level of trait anxiety was considered. Offspring with maternal, but not paternal, Holocaust exposure also reported greater use of psychotropic and other medications, including medications for the treatment of hypertension and lipid disorders. The mechanism linking these health outcomes and maternal exposure deserves further investigation, including the possibility that fetal or early developmental programming is involved.
Highlights
Adverse circumstances that lead to low birth weight are linked to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in adulthood (e.g. [6,14])
Such modifications may be modulated by maternal glucocorticoid activity that is transmitted through the placenta to the fetus, producing persistent alterations of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis throughout the offspring’s lifespan [15,25,30,33,34,39]
Include variability in postnatal maternal care that might reflect previous or current environmental challenges. The latter extension of this theory has been of particular interest in the effort to understand the link between exposure to early life adversity and psychiatric symptoms [7,27,32]. This is in part prompted by the fact that dysregulated glucocorticoid activity is associated with psychiatric disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
Summary
Adverse circumstances that lead to low birth weight are linked to cardiovascular and metabolic diseases in adulthood (e.g. [6,14]). Low birth weight is thought to be the result of modifications in offspring neuronal structure and function initiated by these early environmental events, including in utero stressors such as maternal starvation or illness or exposure to maternal stress (for reviews see [2,12,26,30]) Such modifications may be modulated by maternal glucocorticoid activity that is transmitted through the placenta to the fetus, producing persistent alterations of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis throughout the offspring’s lifespan [15,25,30,33,34,39]. Persons with PTSD show increased rates of cardiovascular and metabolic disease [9,16,17, 21,22,29,37]
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