Early Human Development
Volume 86, Issue 2 , Pages 127-131, February 2010

The relationship between cortisol concentrations in pregnancy and systemic vascular resistance in childhood

  • Patricia Helen Carvalho Rondó

      Affiliations

    • Nutrition Department, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo, Avenida Dr. Arnaldo 715, São Paulo, SP, CEP-01246-904, Brazil
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel./fax: +55 11 3061 777.
    • ,
  • Jesuana Oliveira Lemos

      Affiliations

    • Nutrition Department, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo, Avenida Dr. Arnaldo 715, São Paulo, SP, CEP-01246-904, Brazil
    • ,
  • Joilane Alves Pereira

      Affiliations

    • Nutrition Department, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo, Avenida Dr. Arnaldo 715, São Paulo, SP, CEP-01246-904, Brazil
    • ,
  • José Maria Pacheco Souza

      Affiliations

    • Statistics and Epidemiology Department, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo, Avenida Dr. Arnaldo 715, São Paulo, CEP-01246-904, Brazil

Received 16 July 2009; received in revised form 27 January 2010; accepted 2 February 2010.

Abstract 

Objective

To assess the relationship between cortisol concentrations in the last trimester of pregnancy and systemic vascular resistance — SVR in childhood.

Materials and methods

This study is part of a cohort involving 130 Brazilian pregnant women and their children, ages 5 to 7years. Maternal cortisol was determined in saliva by an enzyme immunoassay utilizing the mean concentration of 9 samples of saliva (3 in each different day), collected at the same time, early in the morning. SVR was assessed by the HDI/PulseWave CR-2000 Cardiovascular Profiling System®. Socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and life style factors were determined by a questionnaire. The nutritional status of the women and children was assessed by the body mass index — BMI. The association between maternal cortisol and SVR in childhood was calculated by multivariate linear regression analysis.

Results

There were statistically significant associations between maternal cortisol and SVR (p=0.043) and BMI-z score of the children (p=0.027), controlling for maternal BMI, birth weight, age, and gender of the children.

Conclusion

As far as we know this is the first study in the literature assessing the association between cortisol concentrations in pregnancy and SVR in childhood. Overall, the data suggest that exposure to excess glucocorticoid in the prenatal period is associated to vascular complications in childhood, predisposing to cardiovascular diseases in later life.

Keywords: Vascular resistance, Childhood, Cortisol, Cardiovascular diseases, Programming

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PII: S0378-3782(10)00046-0

doi:10.1016/j.earlhumdev.2010.02.002

Early Human Development
Volume 86, Issue 2 , Pages 127-131, February 2010

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