The role of maternal nutrition during pregnancy in the intergenerational transmission of childhood adversity

This study used home self-collected saliva samples to successfully monitor cytokines and cortisol in mothers and infants, finding that a community singing intervention significantly reduced salivary interleukin-6 levels in mothers with postnatal depression.

Community singing intervention reduces maternal salivary cytokines and enhances maternal-infant cortisol synchrony in postnatal depression: biological findings from the SHAPER-PND trial — Kirkpatrick et al., Brain, behavior, and immunity (paywalled) · source ↗

• dct
• cortisol
• self-collection
• pediatric
• hormones
• liquid
• saliva
• biomarkers

Children aged 8 to 14 living in neighbourhoods with higher concentrated poverty showed higher diurnal cortisol output when measured in saliva samples. Otherwise, cortisol output showed little association with other aspects of social disadvantage, suggesting limited support for HPA axis dysregulation as a general mechanism linking socioeconomic inequality to health outcomes in childhood.

Weak and uneven associations of home, neighborhood, and school environments with stress hormone output across multiple timescales — Malanchini et al., Molecular psychiatry (paywalled) · source ↗

• saliva
• self-collection
• pediatric
• hormones
• cortisol
• biomarkers

Self-collected saliva from pregnant women showed that high prenatal cortisol and salivary alpha-amylase were associated with increased negative emotionality in female infants but decreased negative emotionality in male infants at two months. This demonstrates that home-based saliva collection can capture biomarkers relevant to infant developmental outcomes, supporting decentralised research into early-life programming.

Associations between biological markers of prenatal stress and infant negative emotionality are specific to sex — Braithwaite et al., Psychoneuroendocrinology · source ↗

• saliva
• self-collection
• pediatric
• hormones
• cortisol
• biomarkers

Cortisol dynamic range measured from participant-led saliva collection was feasible and associated with higher perceived stress and anxiety in African American women, suggesting saliva self-collection can serve as a decentralised biomarker of chronic stress.

A Community-Engaged Approach for Assessment of Cortisol Dynamic Range and Multilevel Chronic Stress in African Americans: FAITH! Heart Health+ Ancillary Study — Ortiz et al., Journal of participatory medicine · source ↗

• cortisol
• self-collection
• hormones
• saliva
• biomarkers

Higher lifetime trauma exposure in adolescent mothers was associated with higher evening salivary cortisol, and maternal trauma during pregnancy was associated with higher bedtime cortisol in infants, suggesting that self-collected saliva can capture diurnal cortisol patterns relevant to trauma research and decentralised sampling.

A Preliminary Investigation of Associations Between Traumatic Events Experienced During Pregnancy and Salivary Diurnal Cortisol Levels of Brazilian Adolescent Mothers and Infants — Wiley et al., American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council (paywalled) · source ↗

• saliva
• self-collection
• pediatric
• hormones
• cortisol