The relationship between cortisol concentrations in pregnancy and systemic vascular resistance in childhood

Abstract Objective To assess the relationship between cortisol concentrations in the last trimester of pregnancy and systemic vascular resistance — SVR in childhood. Materials and methods This study is part of a cohort involving 130 Brazilian pregnant women and their children, ages 5 to 7 years. Maternal cortisol was determined in saliva by an enzyme immunoassay utilizing the mean concentration of 9 samples of saliva (3 in each different day), collected at the same time, early in the morning. SVR was assessed by the HDI/PulseWave CR-2000 Cardiovascular Profiling System®. Socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and life style factors were determined by a questionnaire. The nutritional status of the women and children was assessed by the body mass index — BMI. The association between maternal cortisol and SVR in childhood was calculated by multivariate linear regression analysis. Results There were statistically significant associations between maternal cortisol and SVR ( p = 0.043) and BMI- z score of the children ( p = 0.027), controlling for maternal BMI, birth weight, age, and gender of the children. Conclusion As far as we know this is the first study in the literature assessing the association between cortisol concentrations in pregnancy and SVR in childhood. Overall, the data suggest that exposure to excess glucocorticoid in the prenatal period is associated to vascular complications in childhood, predisposing to cardiovascular diseases in later life.