Prenatal maternal immune activation predicts observed fearfulness in infancy.

Fear reactivity is an early emerging temperament trait that predicts longer term behavioral and health outcomes. The current analysis tests the hypothesis, an extension of prior research on maternal immune activation (MIA), that the prenatal maternal immune system is a reliable predictor of observed fear reactivity in infancy. The analysis is based on a prospective longitudinal cohort study that collected data from the first trimester and conducted observational assessments of temperament at approximately 12 months of age (n = 281 infants). MIA was assessed from immune biomarkers measured in maternal blood at each trimester; infant temperament was assessed using the Laboratory Temperament Assessment Battery assessment at 12 months; covariates included family and sociodemographic factors. Patterns of inflammatory markers across gestation reliably predicted observed temperament: elevated prenatal MIA was associated with high fear reactivity to novel stimuli. The findings provide novel evidence of prenatal origins of fear reactivity and suggest developmental mechanisms that may underlie early emerging individual differences in child temperament. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Cohort profile: Understanding Pregnancy Signals and Infant Development (UPSIDE): a pregnancy cohort study on prenatal exposure mechanisms for child health.

PURPOSE: Extensive research suggests that maternal prenatal distress is reliably related to perinatal and child health outcomes-which may persist into adulthood. However, basic questions remain regarding mechanisms involved. To better understand these mechanisms, we developed the Understanding Pregnancy Signals and Infant Development (UPSIDE) cohort study, which has several distinguishing features, including repeated assessments across trimesters, analysis of multiple biological pathways of interest, and incorporation of placental structure and function as mediators of child health outcomes. PARTICIPANTS: Women with normal risk pregnancies were recruited at <14 weeks gestation. Study visits occurred in each trimester and included extensive psychological, sociodemographic, health behaviour and biospecimen collection. Placenta and cord blood were collected at birth. Child visits (ongoing) occur at birth and 1, 6, 12, 24, 36 and 48 months of age and use standard anthropometric, clinical, behavioural, biological and neuroimaging methods to assess child physical and neurodevelopment. FINDINGS TO DATE: We recruited 326 pregnancies; 294 (90%) were retained through birth. Success rates for prenatal biospecimen collection were high across all trimesters (96%-99% for blood, 94%-97% for urine, 96%-99% for saliva, 96% of placentas, 88% for cord blood and 93% for buccal swab). Ninety-four per cent of eligible babies (n=277) participated in a birth examination; postnatal visits are ongoing. FUTURE PLANS: The current phase of the study follows children through age 4 to examine child neurodevelopment and physical development. In addition, the cohort participates in the National Institutes of Health's Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes programme, a national study of 50 000 families examining early environmental influences on perinatal outcomes, neurodevelopment, obesity and airway disease. Future research will leverage the rich repository of biological samples and clinical data to expand research on the mechanisms of child health outcomes in relation to environmental chemical exposures, genetics and the microbiome.

Associations of Serum Calciprotein Particle Size and Transformation Time With Arterial Calcification, Arterial Stiffness, and Mortality in Incident Hemodialysis Patients.

RATIONALE & OBJECTIVE: Characteristics of the transformation of primary to secondary calciprotein particles (CPPs) in serum, including the size of secondary CPP (CPP2) aggregates and the time of transformation (T50), may be markers for arterial calcification in patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD). We examined the associations of CPP2 aggregate size and T50 with arterial calcification in incident HD patients. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective cohort study. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS: Incident HD patients (n=402with available CPP2 measures and n=388with available T50 measures) from the Predictors of Arrhythmic and Cardiovascular Risk in End-Stage Renal Disease (PACE) Study PREDICTORS: Serum CPP2 size and T50 at baseline. OUTCOMES: Primary outcomes were baseline coronary artery and thoracic aorta calcifications. Exploratory outcomes included baseline arterial stiffness, measured by pulse wave velocity (PWV) and ankle brachial index, and longitudinally, repeat measures of PWV and all-cause mortality. ANALYTICAL APPROACH: Tobit regression, multiple linear regression, Poisson regression, linear mixed-effects regression, and Cox proportional hazards regression. RESULTS: Mean age was 55±13 years, 41% were women, 71% were Black, and 57% had diabetes mellitus. Baseline CPP2 size and T50 were correlated with baseline fetuin A level (r=-0.59 for CPP2 and 0.44 for T50; P<0.001 for both), but neither was associated with baseline measures of arterial calcification or arterial stiffness. Baseline CPP2 size and T50 were not associated with repeat measures of PWV. During a median follow-up of 3.5 (IQR, 1.7-6.2) years, larger CPP2 was associated with higher risk for mortality (HR, 1.17 [95% CI, 1.05-1.31] per 100nm larger CPP2 size) after adjusting for demographics and comorbid conditions, but there was no association between baseline T50 and risk for mortality. LIMITATIONS: Possible imprecision in assays, small sample size, limited generalizability to incident HD populations with different racial composition, and residual confounding. CONCLUSIONS: In incident HD patients, neither CPP2 size nor T50 was associated with prevalent arterial calcification and stiffness. Larger CPP2 was associated with risk for mortality, but this finding needs to be confirmed in future studies.