(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Stressed out pregnant women may be putting
their babies at risk for developing asthma.
Researchers compared the cord blood of infants born to moms in high stress
environments to moms in lower stress situations, and discovered certain
differences in immune function markers that could be linked to asthma risk
later in life.
Together, 557 families were involved in the study, mostly ethnic minorities,
and 20 percent of who were living below poverty level. Each baby's mother or
father had a history of asthma or allergy.
To get their data, researchers first isolated immune cells from the blood
and then exposed them to different stimuli, like dust, viruses and bacteria.
They then looked at how many cytokines those cells produced as an indicator
of how well the child's immune system responded.
"This is the first study in humans to show that increased stress experienced
during pregnancy in these urban, largely minority women, is associated with
different patterns of cord blood cytokine production to various
environmental stimuli, relative to babies born to lower-stressed mothers,"
Rosalind Wright, M.D., M.P.H., an associate physician at Brigham and Women's
Hospital, in Boston, was quoted as saying.
It has been known that asthma is occurs more among ethnic minorities and
disadvantaged urban communities, but the difference in risk cannot be
completely attributed to known physical factors.
"The current findings suggest that psychological stress is involved in
programming of the infant immune response and that this influence begins
during pregnancy," Dr. Wright said. "As these infants mature, we will learn
how these factors manifest later in terms of the development of asthma and
allergy."
Source: American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine,
published online March 2010
