Is brain-derived neurotropic factor methylation involved in the association between prenatal stress and maternal postnatal anxiety during the covid-19 pandemic?

This database includes the raw data linked with the paper “IIs brain-derived neurotropic factor methylation involved in the association between prenatal stress and maternal postnatal anxiety during the covid-19 pandemic?”. This publication is part of the longitudinal and multi-centric “Measuring the outcomes of maternal COVID-19-related prenatal exposure (MOM-COPE)” research project. In this paper, we report data on the association among pandemic-related stress during pregnancy, maternal BDNF methylation, and postnatal anxiety symptoms.<br> <strong>Procedures. </strong>At birth, the mothers filled in the ad-hoc questionnaire attached about the pandemic related stress (file name: 22-06-14_momcope_bdnf_adhoc.pdf) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1983). The maternal BDNF methylation was estimated in 11 CpG sites in DNA from mothers’ buccal cells by PCR amplification of bisulfite-treated DNA followed by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) on a NEXTSeq-500 (Illumina, San Diego, California, USA).<br> <strong>Analytical plan. </strong>Separate Pearson’s bivariate correlations were used to assess the presence of significant associations among pandemic-related stress during pregnancy, maternal anxious symptoms after delivery, and CpG-specific BDNF % methylation. CpG-specific BDNF % methylation values for which a significant association emerged with both pandemic-related stress and anxious symptoms were subsequently tested in a mediation model to assess their role as significant mediators of the relationship between pandemic-related stress and maternal anxious symptoms.<br> <strong>Findings in brief. </strong>Results showed that pandemic-related stress was associated with an increased risk of postnatal anxiety (r = .20, p &lt;.05). CpG-specific BDNF methylation was significantly associated with both prenatal pandemic-related stress (r = .21, p &lt; .05) and postnatal maternal anxious symptoms (r = .25, p = .01). Moreover, a complete mediation by the BDNF CpG6 methylation emerged between pandemic-related stress during pregnancy and postnatal maternal anxiety (ACME = .66, p &lt; .05).