Abstract

Objective: Disorders in the expression of plasma homocysteine are significantly related to psychological stress. There is also evidence that prenatal maternal psychological stress could lead to adverse birth outcomes. The present study aimed to determine whether disorders in the expression of plasma homocysteine would be associated with the adverse birth outcomes following prenatal psychological stress (PPS). Methods: We enrolled 60 pregnancy women with PPS and 60 ones without PPS. The 24-itemHamilton Rating Scale for Depression and the 14-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety were applied to assess all subjects. The score of depression ≥ 20 or the score of anxiety ≥ 14 was defined as PPS. Maternal plasma homocysteine were measured by enzymatic cycling assay. Results: Plasma homocysteine were significantly higher in women with PPS than ones without PPS (27.3 ± 15.0 μmol/L vs. 20.9 ± 14.7 μmol/L, P = 0.019). Birth weight, birth length, head circumference and gestation length were significantly lower in the infants of women with PPS than ones without PPS (2849 ± 740 g vs. 3212 ± 578 g, P = 0.003; 48.0 ± 3.7 cm vs. 49.3 ± 2.6 cm, P = 0.029; 32.4 ± 2.2 cm vs. 33.4 ± 1.4 cm, P = 0.002; 37.2 ± 2.5 week vs. 38.7 ± 2.5 week, P = 0.002). Maternal plasma homocysteine negatively and significantly correlated with birth weight, birth length, head circumference and gestation length (r = -0.621, P < 0.001; r = -0.604, P < 0.001; r = -0.669, P < 0.001; r = -0.760, P < 0.001; respectively). Conclusions: PPS was significantly associated with maternal plasma homocysteine and adverse birth outcomes, and increased maternal plasma homocysteine may be related to the impacts of PPS on poor birth outcomes.

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