Maternal prenatal depressive symptoms and toddler behavior: an umbilical cord blood epigenome-wide association study

Children of mothers with prenatal depressive symptoms (PND) have a higher risk of behavioral problems; fetal programming through DNA methylation is a possible underlying mechanism. This study investigated DNA methylation in cord blood to identify possible “at birth” signatures that may indicate susceptibility to behavioral problems at 18 months of age. Cord blood was collected from 256 children of mothers who had self-reported on symptoms of depression during pregnancy and the behavior of their child at 18 months of age. Whole genome DNA methylation was assessed using Illumina MethylationEPIC assay. The mother and child pairs were categorized into four groups, based on both self-reported depressive symptoms, PND or Healthy control (HC), and scores from the Child Behavior checklist (high or low for internalizing, externalizing, and total scores). Adjustments were made for batch effects, cell-type, and clinical covariates. Differentially methylated sites were identified using Kruskal–Wallis test, and Benjamini–Hochberg adjusted p values