Pregnant women with anxiety have biologically distinct immune systems: Study

It has been demonstrated by researchers that pregnant women with anxiety have an immune system that is fundamentally different from pregnant women without anxiety.

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Columbia University Irving Medical Center have shown that pregnant women with anxiety have an immune system that differs biologically from pregnant women without anxiety. The research, which was released on September 14 in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, shows that anxious pregnant women have larger concentrations of cytotoxic T cells, immune cells that go after diseased or otherwise damaged bodily cells.

Also, the blood-circulating immunological markers in anxious women behaved differently. This is the first research to assess how anxiety affects the course of immunological alterations throughout pregnancy and the postpartum period.

"Women with anxiety appear to have an immune system that behaves differently from that of healthy women during pregnancy and after delivery," said principal investigator Dr. Lauren M. Osborne, vice chair for clinical research for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine, who conducted the research while on Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's faculty. "During pregnancy, a delicate dance is supposed to occur, in which the immune system changes so that it does not reject the fetus but is still strong enough to keep out foreign pathogens."

Anxiety during pregnancy, which is self-reported by more than 20 percent of people, according to the researchers, is already known to be detrimental to the parent and child. For example, it can increase the risk of preterm birth and a lower newborn birth weight.

For this study, Dr. Osborne and her colleagues assessed a group of 107 pregnant women, 56 with anxiety and 51 without anxiety, during their second and third trimesters and at six weeks postpartum. The researchers evaluated blood samples for immune activity and conducted psychological evaluations to detect clinical anxiety.

They found that in the women with anxiety, levels of cytotoxic T cells were elevated during pregnancy and then decreased in the weeks following childbirth. In women without anxiety, the activity of these cells declined in pregnancy and continued to decline after birth.

The researchers also observed that the activity of largely pro-inflammatory cytokines, or substances secreted by cells as part of the immune system response, was suppressed during pregnancy in women with anxiety and then rose after childbirth, while healthy women exhibited the opposite pattern.

"The takeaway is that this is the first clear evidence that immune activity differs for pregnant women depending on their anxiety status. Knowing that there is immune system involvement is a first step toward understanding the biological factors related to anxiety in pregnancy, and a first step toward developing new treatments," said Dr. Osborne. "We know that anxiety needs to be treated to ensure healthy outcomes for both mother and child."

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