Natural disaster stress during pregnancy is linked to reprogramming of the placenta transcriptome in relation to anxiety and stress hormones in young offspring

We profiled the transcriptome of placental specimens from women who lived through Hurricane Sandy during pregnancy compared to those pregnant during non-Sandy conditions. Following birth, longitudinal assessments were conducted in their offspring during childhood to measure steroid hormones and behavioral and emotional problems. This revealed a significant link between prenatal Sandy Stress and child HPA dysfunction, evident by altered cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone, and cortisol-DHEA levels. In addition, PNSS was associated with significantly increased anxiety and aggression. These findings coincided with significant reorganization of the placental transcriptome via vascular, immune, and endocrine gene pathways. Interestingly, many of the most prominently altered genes were known to be uniquely expressed in the syncytiotrophoblast subtype of placental cells and harbored glucocorticoid response elements in promoter regions. Finally, several vascular development and immune-related placental gene sets were found to mediate the relationship between PNSS and childhood phenotypes.