Journal article
Future Horizons for Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Placental Mechanisms
Frontiers in pediatrics, Vol.9, pp.653230-653230
2021
DOI: 10.3389/fped.2021.653230
PMCID: PMC8061726
PMID: 33898362
Abstract
Opinion article
To improve care for the estimated 17.1 million children with psychiatric disorders in the United States (1), it is critical to explore all possible connections to better understand these disorders' origins. The onset of neurodevelopmental/psychiatric disorders varies person-to-person. However, even for disorders diagnosed after infancy, there is a growing appreciation that the origins of these disorders are at the earliest stages of brain development—prenatally. Furthermore, not only is it crucial to understand what is unusual during development, but also why this occurs.
A significant contributor to abnormal prenatal brain development is physiological stress during pregnancy (2–6). Physiological stress induces a significant shift from homeostasis, and may arise from chemical exposures, psychological stress, infections, and illnesses such as preeclampsia or gestational diabetes. Epidemiological studies link maternal stress with offspring neurodevelopmental impairments (2), and animal studies have demonstrated causality of this relationship. For example, preeclampsia—a disorder with disrupted maternal vascular and immune biology—increases risk of neuropsychiatric problems among children (3). Evidence has come from human and non-human preeclampsia studies implicating what in the offspring brain has changed: its morphology, white matter, and vasculature. When we ask the further question of why these changes occur with preeclampsia or any maternal stress, it is critical to consider the biology of not only mother and offspring but also their link—the placenta. Changes in placenta may be a critical factor for offspring neurodevelopment (Figure 1).
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Future Horizons for Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Placental Mechanisms
- Creators
- Sreelekha Kundu - ,Sara V Maurer - ,Hanna E Stevens - ,
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Frontiers in pediatrics, Vol.9, pp.653230-653230
- DOI
- 10.3389/fped.2021.653230
- PMID
- 33898362
- PMCID
- PMC8061726
- NLM abbreviation
- Front Pediatr
- ISSN
- 2296-2360
- eISSN
- 2296-2360
- Publisher
- Frontiers Media S.A
- Grant note
- National Institutes of Health
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2021
- Academic Unit
- Psychiatry; Stead Family Department of Pediatrics; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984070351402771
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