Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-29-2015
Publication Title
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
Department
Geisel School of Medicine
Abstract
We examined whether placental DNA methylation of the glucocorticoid receptor gene, NR3C1 was associated with self-regulation and neuroendocrine responses to a social stressor in infancy. Placenta samples were obtained at birth and mothers and their infants (n = 128) participated in the still-face paradigm when infants were 5 months old. Infant self-regulation following the still-face episode was coded and pre-stress cortisol and cortisol reactivity was assessed in response to the still-face paradigm. A factor analysis of NR3C1 CpG sites revealed two factors: one for CpG sites 1-4 and the other for sites 5-13. DNA methylation of the factor comprising NR3C1 CpG sites 5-13 was related to greater cortisol reactivity and infant self-regulation, but cortisol reactivity was not associated with infant self-regulation. The results reveal that prenatal epigenetic processes may explain part of the development of infant self-regulation.
DOI
10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00130
Dartmouth Digital Commons Citation
Conradt, Elisabeth; Fei, Mary; LaGasse, Linda; Tronick, Edward; Guerin, Dylan; Gorman, Daniel; Marsit, Carmen J.; and Lester, Barry M., "Prenatal Predictors of Infant Self-Regulation: The Contributions of Placental DNA Methylation of NR3C1 and Neuroendocrine Activity" (2015). Dartmouth Scholarship. 847.
https://digitalcommons.dartmouth.edu/facoa/847