Experiencing psychological stress during pregnancy, such as clinical depression and anxiety, has implications for NR3C1 methylation of the gestating offspring. Maternal depressed mood during the third trimester of pregnancy was associated with increased NR3C1 methylation in cord blood mononuclear cells that mediated an enhanced cortisol response to stress in three month old infants (Oberlander et al., 2008). Pregnancy-related anxiety and cortisol levels of the mother were also correlated with NR3C1 methylation of the cord blood of the infant (Hompes et al., 2013). Depression experienced during pregnancy decreased Bdnf methylation in buccal cells collected from infant offspring (Braithwaite et al., 2015). Male, but not female, infants also showed increased NR3C1 methylation (Braithwaite et al., 2015). Another study found that mothers that reported symptoms of depression during the second trimester of pregnancy had newborns with reduced promoter methylation of SLC6A4 in umbilical cord leukocytes, which codes for the serotonin transporter (Devlin et al., 2010). Future studies examining associations of methylation and long-term behavioral outcomes in offspring following exposure to maternal depression and anxiety during gestation are warranted.
