The interactive effects of maternal stress and diet in pregnancy on markers of inflammation

Author(s): Lindsay, Karen L.; Buss, Claudia; Wadhwa, Pathik D.; Entringer, Sonja | Abstract: Introduction:Excess inflammation during pregnancy may exert adverse effects on fetal development and birth outcomes, including prematurity, intrauterine growth restriction, and preeclampsia. Maternal nutrition and stress are two of the most frequently but independently studied factors for their influence on prenatal inflammatory status, but their interaction in the context of pregnancy has been significantly understudied.The Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII) is a validated method to characterize and quantify the cumulative inflammatory potential of an individual diet,1 and has been previously used in prenatal populations.2,3 Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) methods are an effective way to assess psychosocial states in real-time, ambulatory, naturalistic settings, reducing the potential for recall and saliency bias associated with traditional retrospective questionnaires.4 Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the combined effects of perceived stress (PSS) and dietary inflammatory index (DII) across pregnancy on markers of maternal inflammation.Financial Support: NIH grants R01 HD-060628, HD-065825 a MH-091351; European Commission FP7 289346 Project Early NutritionPoster presented at the ICTS Translational Science Day at University of California Irvine on May 4, 2018