Asthma Treatments Online

Studies conducted at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston have shown that stress during pregnancy may increase the risk of asthma in children.

The role of stress in asthma development is not completely understood, but studies have indicated that stress in the mother during pregnancy can influence the immune system of her unborn child.

“This is the first study in humans to show that increased stress experienced during pregnancy in these urban, largely minority women, is associated with different patterns of cord blood cytokine production to various environmental stimuli, relative to babies born to lower-stressed mothers,” said Rosalind Wright, M.D., M.P.H., associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Asthma is known to be more prevalent among ethnic minorities and among disadvantaged urban communities, but the disparity is not completely explained
by known physical factors. Urban women living in the inner-city also experience significant stress, particularly minority women.

557 pregnant families answered a detailed questionnaire about the various sources of stress in their lives, such as at home, in their neighbourhood, and financially. Once the infants were born, the researchers collected umbilical cord blood,and studied the reaction of immune cells to allergens such as dust, viruses and bacteria.

The researchers then checked for the production of different cytokines, in order to assess how a child’s immune system was primed to respond in different environments. Children who were born to mothers in high stress environments were compared with those born to mothers with lower stress. The women were mainly from ethnic minorities and 20 per cent were from families who lived below the poverty threshold.

Patterns of cytokines related to certain stimulants, which act as indicators of how a child’s immune system is functioning at birth, differed based on the level of stress reported by the mothers. Cytokine patterns seen in the higher stress groups may be a marker of increased asthma and allergy risk as the children grow older.

The research will continue as the infants grow up to determine whether maternal stress levels do indeed have an impact on asthma development.