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BMC Psychiatry Aug 2023The long-term repercussions that war can have on both war generations and post-war generations lack in the literature. It is imperative to understand the psychological...
The generation that lived during/participated in the war and the generation that inherited it: association between veterans PTSD and adult offspring's emotional regulation strategies and alexithymia levels.
BACKGROUND
The long-term repercussions that war can have on both war generations and post-war generations lack in the literature. It is imperative to understand the psychological consequences of the Lebanese Civil War that took place from 1975 to 1990, on the offspring of those who took part in it. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to assess the association between paternal/veterans PTSD and adult offspring's emotional regulation strategies and alexithymia levels, 30 years after the end of war.
METHOD
A cross-sectional study was carried out between September 2020 and September 2021 on a sample of 75 fathers of Lebanese former veterans and paramilitary veterans and their adult offspring. For the veterans and paramilitary veterans' population, the PTSD Checklist was used to assess post-traumatic stress disorder, and the Combat Exposure Scale (CES) was used to measure the level of combat exposure. For the offspring population, the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) was used to assess emotional regulation strategies and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) was used to measure the levels of alexithymia.
RESULTS
Paternal PTSD (Beta = 10.19) was associated with higher levels of alexithymia in the offspring population. Regarding emotional regulation strategies, results showed that paternal PTSD (Beta = -3.24) was significantly associated with a decrease in the cognitive reappraisal score in the offspring. Also, paternal PTSD (Beta = 4.57) was significantly associated with an increase in expressive suppression score. Additionally, an older father's age (Beta = 1.11) was significantly associated with an increased alexithymia score in the offspring. Moreover, results showed that paternal combat injuries (Beta = -4.24) were significantly associated with a decrease in the alexithymia score in the offspring population and an increase in the expressive suppression score (Beta = 3.28).
CONCLUSION
This study shows that fathers' traumatic experience of war influences emotion regulation and alexithymia levels in their offspring. Longitudinal studies taking into account the age of the offspring at the time of onset of fathers' symptoms may provide us with additional information to understand the influence of paternal PTSD on the emotional functioning of offspring during different phases of emotional development.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Emotional Regulation; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic; Affective Symptoms; Adult Children; Cross-Sectional Studies; Veterans
PubMed: 37592206
DOI: 10.1186/s12888-023-05087-y -
Scientific Reports May 2023Natal dispersal is an important life-history trait in all animal taxa. In pair-living species, parent-offspring competition derived from the offspring's maturity can...
Natal dispersal is an important life-history trait in all animal taxa. In pair-living species, parent-offspring competition derived from the offspring's maturity can motivate the natal dispersal of offspring. However, not much has been known about the dispersal mechanisms of pair-living gibbons. To test food and mate competition as potential reasons for dispersal, we investigated the effect of the offspring age and sex on relationships between parents and offspring in wild Javan gibbon (Hylobates moloch) in Gunung Halimun-Salak National Park, Indonesia. We collected behavioral data for two years between 2016 and 2019. We found that aggression from parents toward offspring increased in both feeding and non-feeding context as the offspring got older. Offspring received more aggression from the parent of the same sex in the general context. While offspring decreased co-feeding and grooming time with parents as they got older, there was no change in the proximity and approach to parents. The results imply the presence of both intra-group food and mate competition which increase with the offspring's age. We highlight that increased competition between maturing offspring and parents changes their social relationships and peripheralizes offspring from the natal group which will eventually motivate offspring to disperse in Javan gibbons.
Topics: Animals; Hylobates; Group Dynamics; Food; Group Processes; Reproduction
PubMed: 37217595
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-34913-2 -
JAMA Psychiatry Aug 2023Modeling genetic nurture (ie, the effects of parental genotypes through influences on the environment experienced by their children) is essential to accurately...
IMPORTANCE
Modeling genetic nurture (ie, the effects of parental genotypes through influences on the environment experienced by their children) is essential to accurately disentangle genetic and environmental influences on phenotypic variance. However, these influences are often ignored in both epidemiologic and genetic studies of depression.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the association of genetic nurture with depression and neuroticism.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
This cross-sectional study jointly modeled parental and offspring polygenic scores (PGSs) across 9 traits to test for the association of genetic nurture with lifetime broad depression and neuroticism using data from nuclear families in the UK Biobank, with data collected between 2006 and 2019. A broad depression phenotype was measured in 38 702 offspring from 20 905 independent nuclear families, with most of these participants also reporting neuroticism scores. Parental genotypes were imputed from sibships or parent-offspring duos and used to calculate parental PGSs. Data were analyzed between March 2021 and January 2023.
MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Estimates of genetic nurture and direct genetic regression coefficients on broad depression and neuroticism.
RESULTS
This study of 38 702 offspring with data on broad depression (mean [SD] age, 55.5 [8.2] years at study entry; 58% female) found limited preliminary evidence for a statistically significant association of genetic nurture with lifetime depression and neuroticism in adults. The estimated regression coefficient of the parental depression PGS on offspring neuroticism (β = 0.04, SE = 0.02, P = 6.63 × 10-3) was estimated to be approximately two-thirds (66%) that of the offspring's depression PGS (β = 0.06, SE = 0.01, P = 6.13 × 10-11). Evidence for an association between parental cannabis use disorder PGS and offspring depression was also found (β = 0.08, SE = 0.03, P = .02), which was estimated to be 2 times greater than the association between the offspring's cannabis use disorder PGS and their own depression status (β = 0.04, SE = 0.02, P = .07).
CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
The results of this cross-sectional study highlight the potential for genetic nurture to bias results from epidemiologic and genetic studies on depression or neuroticism and, with further replication and larger samples, identify potential avenues for future prevention and intervention efforts.
Topics: Humans; Female; Male; Neuroticism; Depression; Cross-Sectional Studies; Marijuana Abuse; Genotype; Multifactorial Inheritance; Genome-Wide Association Study
PubMed: 37285136
DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2023.1544 -
Journal of Hypertension Nov 2016Early - intrauterine - environmental factors are linked to the development of cardiovascular disease in later life. Traditionally, these factors are considered to be... (Review)
Review
Early - intrauterine - environmental factors are linked to the development of cardiovascular disease in later life. Traditionally, these factors are considered to be maternal factors such as maternal under and overnutrition, exposure to toxins, lack of micronutrients, and stress during pregnancy. However, in the recent years, it became obvious that also paternal environmental factors before conception and during sperm development determine the health of the offspring in later life. We will first describe clinical observational studies providing evidence for paternal programming of adulthood diseases in progeny. Next, we describe key animal studies proving this relationship, followed by a detailed analysis of our current understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms of paternal programming. Alterations of noncoding sperm micro-RNAs, histone acetylation, and targeted as well as global DNA methylation seem to be in particular involved in paternal programming of offspring's diseases in later life.
Topics: Animals; Cardiovascular Diseases; DNA Methylation; Diabetes Mellitus; Environmental Exposure; Female; Fetal Development; Food; Food Deprivation; Histones; Humans; Male; MicroRNAs; Obesity; Paternal Exposure; Pregnancy; Spermatogenesis; Spermatozoa
PubMed: 27457668
DOI: 10.1097/HJH.0000000000001051 -
Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial... 2022The wrinkles and grooves visible on the lips form the characteristic pattern of an individual and imprints produced is termed as "lip print." The study of these prints...
BACKGROUND
The wrinkles and grooves visible on the lips form the characteristic pattern of an individual and imprints produced is termed as "lip print." The study of these prints is known as "cheiloscopy." Variations in patterns among males and females could help in sex determination. Lip prints, therefore, can constitute material evidence left at a crime spot, equivalent to fingerprints. These patterns are heritable and are believed to be unique and permanent. The lip prints of parents and children and those of siblings have been shown to have some similarities. The influence of inherited lip print patterns among family members is still a new concept and studies are scanty in literature.
OBJECTIVES
The objectives are to determine the most common patterns and gender-wise distribution among the study population and to analyze the inherited lip print patterns from parents to their offspring.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Lip prints of 30 families were obtained using lipstick and cellophane tape. Based on criteria given by Suzuki and Tsuchihashi, patterns were recorded and analyzed from four quadrants of the lips using a magnifying lens.
RESULTS
The positive resemblance of lip print patterns from parents to their offsprings showed statistically significant resemblance in one quadrant and rest of the three quadrants showed no significant association between parents and offspring.
CONCLUSION
Positive resemblance among the family members can be attributed to the genetics and inheritance. Lip print can be considered as an auxiliary method of identification.
PubMed: 35571319
DOI: 10.4103/jomfp.jomfp_194_21 -
Immunity Nov 2021Maternal infection during pregnancy increases the offspring's risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders. While IL-6 is involved, the mechanism by which IL-6 and...
Maternal infection during pregnancy increases the offspring's risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders. While IL-6 is involved, the mechanism by which IL-6 and other cytokines affect developing neural circuits is unknown. In this issue of Immunity, Mirabella et al. (2021) show that the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6 specifically increases synaptogenesis in immature excitatory neurons through downstream neuronal STAT3-dependent transcriptional regulation of Rgs4.
Topics: Cytokines; Female; Humans; Interleukin-6; Neurogenesis; Neurons; Pregnancy; STAT3 Transcription Factor
PubMed: 34758335
DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2021.10.010 -
Integrative Psychological & Behavioral... Mar 2011The mother-offspring relationship has components of both positivity and negativity. Kowakare is a new concept introduced to explain an adaptive function of the... (Review)
Review
The mother-offspring relationship has components of both positivity and negativity. Kowakare is a new concept introduced to explain an adaptive function of the negativity in the early mother-offspring relationship. Kowakare is the psycho-somatic development of the relationship as the process of accumulation in the otherness of offspring. Early human Kowakare has two frameworks, biological inter-body antagonism and socio-cultural allomothering compensating the antagonism. Some features of feeding/weaning, parental aversion to offspring's bodily products, and transition from dyad to triad relationship (proto-triad relationship) in tactile play are discussed. Early human Kowakare is promoted by allomothering with the nested systems of objects/persons/institutions as interfaces between mother and offspring. Kowakare makes mother-offspring relationship a mutually autonomous and cooperative companionship.
Topics: Animals; Breast Feeding; Child; Child Care; Culture; Female; Haplorhini; Humans; Male; Mother-Child Relations; Object Attachment; Social Environment; Species Specificity; Weaning
PubMed: 21161454
DOI: 10.1007/s12124-010-9148-1 -
Cancer Reports (Hoboken, N.J.) Dec 2022About 50 000 new cases of cancer in the United States are attributed to obesity. The adverse effects of obesity on breast cancer may be most profound when affecting... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
About 50 000 new cases of cancer in the United States are attributed to obesity. The adverse effects of obesity on breast cancer may be most profound when affecting the early development; that is, in the womb of a pregnant obese mother. Maternal obesity has several long-lasting adverse health effects on the offspring, including increasing offspring's breast cancer risk and mortality. Gut microbiota is a player in obesity as well as may impact breast carcinogenesis. Gut microbiota is established early in life and the microbial composition of an infant's gut becomes permanently dysregulated because of maternal obesity. Metabolites from the microbiota, especially short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), play a critical role in mediating the effect of gut bacteria on multiple biological functions, such as immune system, including tumor immune responses.
RECENT FINDINGS
Maternal obesity can pre-program daughter's breast cancer to be more aggressive, less responsive to treatments and consequently more likely to cause breast cancer related death. Maternal obesity may also induce poor response to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICB) therapy through increased abundance of inflammation associated microbiome and decreased abundance of bacteria that are linked to production of SCFAs. Dietary interventions that increase the abundance of bacteria producing SCFAs potentially reverses offspring's resistance to breast cancer therapy.
CONCLUSION
Since immunotherapies have emerged as highly effective treatments for many cancers, albeit there is an urgent need to enlarge the patient population who will be responsive to these treatments. One of the factors which may cause ICB refractoriness could be maternal obesity, based on its effects on the microbiota markers of ICB therapy response among the offspring. Since about 40% of children are born to obese mothers in the Western societies, it is important to determine if maternal obesity impairs offspring's response to cancer immunotherapies.
Topics: Infant; Child; Humans; Female; Pregnancy; Obesity, Maternal; Breast Neoplasms; Dysbiosis; Obesity; Gastrointestinal Microbiome
PubMed: 36411524
DOI: 10.1002/cnr2.1752 -
Frontiers in Psychiatry 2022
PubMed: 35573323
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.901177 -
In Vivo (Athens, Greece) 2021The reproducibility of athero - sclerotic lesions was evaluated after the production of cloned-microminipigs and their offspring.
BACKGROUND/AIM
The reproducibility of athero - sclerotic lesions was evaluated after the production of cloned-microminipigs and their offspring.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Cloned-microminipig-parents were produced by microminipigsomatic cell nuclei. These parents were crossbred and delivered males (F1-offspring) were divided into two groups: normal chow diet (NcD)-fed and high-fat/high-cholesterol diet (HcD)-fed groups. One of the F1-offsprings was subjected to cloning, and delivered males (F1-clones) were fed with HcD. After 8 weeks, all animals were necropsied for patho - physiological studies compared to non-cloned-microminipigs.
RESULTS
HcD-fed F1-offspring and F1-clones, but not NcD-fed F1-offspring, exhibited increased serum lipid levels and systemic atherosclerosis, which were comparable to those of HcD-fed non-cloned-microminipigs. Homogeneity of variance analysis demonstrated that standard deviation values of serum lipoprotein and aortic atherosclerosis area from HcD-fed animals decreased in F1-offspring and F1-clones.
CONCLUSION
HcD-induced atherogenesis was highly reproducible in F1-offsprings and F1-clones, indicating that the atherosclerosis-prone genomic background was preserved in the cloned-microminipigs, which can be used for studies on human atherosclerosis and related diseases.
Topics: Animals; Atherosclerosis; Cholesterol; Cloning, Molecular; Humans; Male; Reproducibility of Results; Technology
PubMed: 34182477
DOI: 10.21873/invivo.12471