Maternal adverse childhood experiences impact fetal adrenal volume in a sex-specific manner

Abstract

Highlights Three-dimensional ultrasound serves as a non-invasive way to measure fetal adrenal volume as a proxy for development of the fetal hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis. Weight-adjusted fetal adrenal volume (waFAV) differed between subgroups based on offspring sex and the mother’s history of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). In males of mothers with a high ACE history, waFAV was significantly smaller than in males of mothers with a low ACE history but indistinguishable from the waFAV of females from either maternal ACE group; however, males of mothers with a low ACE history had larger waFAV than females from either maternal ACE group. These findings suggest male vulnerability to dysmasculinization of waFAV in response to maternal preconception stress in line with previous animal studies showing a dysmasculinizing effect of gestational stress on a range of offspring outcomes.

Keywords

• Maternal early life stress
• Preconception stress
• Fetal hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis
• Fetal adrenal gland
• Dysmasculinization
• Sex differences