The association between maternal psychological stress and inflammatory cytokines in allergic young children

Mayumi Tsuji; Chihaya Koriyama; Megumi Yamamoto; Ayumi Anan; Eiji Shibata; Toshihiro Kawamoto

doi:10.7717/peerj.1585

The association between maternal psychological stress and inflammatory cytokines in allergic young children

PeerJ. 2016 Jan 18:4:e1585. doi: 10.7717/peerj.1585. eCollection 2016.

Authors

Mayumi Tsuji¹, Chihaya Koriyama², Megumi Yamamoto³, Ayumi Anan⁴, Eiji Shibata⁵, Toshihiro Kawamoto⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Health, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Kitakyusyu, Japan; Department of Environmental Toxicology, University of California, Davis, United States.
² Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Kagoshima University , Kagoshima , Japan.
³ Integrated Physiology Section, Department of Basic Medical Science, National Institute for Minamata Disease , Minamata , Japan.
⁴ Department of Clinical Nursing, School of Health Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health , Kitakyusyu , Japan.
⁵ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Occupational and Environmental Health , Kitakyusyu , Japan.
⁶ Department of Environmental Health, University of Occupational and Environmental Health , Kitakyusyu , Japan.

Abstract

Background. Previous studies have shown that psychological stress is linked to asthma prevalence. Parental psychological stress may potentially influence inflammatory responses in their allergic children. The purpose of this study is to clarify the association between maternal psychological status and inflammatory response of allergic young children. Methods. The study subjects were 152 young allergic children (median age: 13 months) who had not shown any allergic symptoms in the past one month. mRNA expression levels of the inflammatory response genes IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and IL-22 were quantified by qRT-PCR. Maternal psychological status was assessed by standardized questionnaires: the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) for depression and the Japanese Perceived Stress Scale (JPSS) for perceived stress. Results. A significant positive association was observed between maternal CES-D scores and IL-6 mRNA expression in the children with asthma. The JPSS scores were also positively associated with IL-8 mRNA expression in asthmatic children and IL-6 mRNA expression in children with allergic rhinitis. Similar trends were observed among children positive for house dust mite-specific IgE, but these associations were not significant. Conclusion. This study supports the hypothesis that maternal psychological stress affects the inflammatory response in their allergic children.

Keywords: Allergy; Children; Cytokines; Psychological stress.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the JSPS Excellent Young Researcher Overseas Visit Program awarded to MT and by the JSPS KAKENHI Grant number 22790546 and 25860472 to MT. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.