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Maternal opioid use is reflected on leukocyte telomere length of male newborns

Fatemeh Rahimi Mehdi Abad1, Parvin Khalili2,3, Fatemeh Jalali4,5

  • 1Department of Clinical Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran.

Plos One
|December 17, 2021
PubMed

Insights

Maternal opioid use may impact infant aging. Newborn males born to mothers using opioids showed longer telomere length, a biomarker of aging, suggesting potential transgenerational effects.

Area of Science:

  • Gerontology
  • Developmental Biology
  • Epigenetics

Background:

  • Opioid use is known to accelerate aging in adults.
  • The transgenerational impact of opioid use on aging biomarkers in offspring is largely unknown.
  • Telomere length is a critical biomarker for aging and age-related diseases.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between maternal opioid use and relative telomere length (RTL) in newborns.
  • To explore potential transgenerational effects of opioid exposure on aging biomarkers at birth.

Main Methods:

  • A case-control study involving 57 mother-newborn dyads.
  • Measurement of RTL in leukocyte genomic DNA from umbilical cord blood using real-time PCR.
  • Logistic regression analysis to assess the correlation between maternal opioid use and neonatal RTL, stratified by neonate sex.

Main Results:

  • A significant association was observed between maternal opioid use and longer leukocyte RTL in male neonates.
  • Sensitivity analysis by neonate sex revealed that male neonates born to opioid-using mothers had a significantly increased odds ratio of longer RTL.
  • No significant association was found in female neonates.

Conclusions:

  • Maternal opioid use may be associated with altered telomere length in newborns, particularly in males.
  • This finding suggests a potential sex-specific transgenerational influence of opioid exposure on aging biomarkers.
  • Further research with larger sample sizes is needed to confirm these findings and elucidate underlying mechanisms.

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