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Developmental origins of immune function: Maternal prenatal mood is associated with infant immune cell gene

Gabrielle R Rinne1, Christine Dunkel Schetter2, Susan Jackman3

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
|December 21, 2025
PubMed

Insights

Maternal prenatal depressive symptoms impact infant immune pathways, affecting inflammatory and antiviral gene expression. This suggests a link between maternal mental health during pregnancy and infant immune development.

Area of Science:

  • Perinatal mental health
  • Immunology
  • Developmental biology

Background:

  • The prenatal environment significantly influences offspring lifelong health via fetal adaptations.
  • Offspring immune system development is a key pathway connecting prenatal exposures to later health outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the association between maternal prenatal depressive and anxiety symptoms and infant immune gene expression.
  • To identify specific immune pathways influenced by maternal mental health during pregnancy.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study of 118 mother-infant pairs.
  • Maternal depressive and anxiety symptoms assessed via interviews throughout pregnancy.
  • Infant gene expression analyzed from dried blood spots using RNA sequencing (RNAseq) around 1 month postpartum.

Main Results:

  • Maternal depressive symptoms correlated with increased infant pro-inflammatory (NF-κB pathway) gene expression and decreased antiviral (IRF pathway) gene expression.
  • Maternal anxiety symptoms showed a trend towards decreased antiviral gene expression, but this was not significant after accounting for depressive symptoms.

Conclusions:

  • Prenatal depressive symptoms may alter infant immune system development through inflammatory and antiviral pathways.
  • These findings highlight the potential impact of maternal mental health on infant immune function and subsequent health trajectories.

Keywords:
AnxietyDepressionGene expressionInfancyInflammationPregnancy

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