Partial Support for an Interaction Between a Polygenic Risk Score for Major Depressive Disorder and Prenatal Maternal Depressive Symptoms on Infant Right Amygdalar Volumes

H Acosta; K Kantojärvi; N Hashempour; J Pelto; N M Scheinin; S J Lehtola; J D Lewis; V S Fonov; D L Collins; A Evans; R Parkkola; T Lähdesmäki; J Saunavaara; L Karlsson; H Merisaari; T Paunio; H Karlsson; J J Tuulari

doi:10.1093/cercor/bhaa158

Partial Support for an Interaction Between a Polygenic Risk Score for Major Depressive Disorder and Prenatal Maternal Depressive Symptoms on Infant Right Amygdalar Volumes

Cereb Cortex. 2020 Nov 3;30(12):6121-6134. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa158.

Authors

H Acosta^{1

2}, K Kantojärvi^{3

4}, N Hashempour¹, J Pelto¹, N M Scheinin^{1

5}, S J Lehtola¹, J D Lewis⁶, V S Fonov⁶, D L Collins⁶, A Evans⁶, R Parkkola⁷, T Lähdesmäki⁸, J Saunavaara⁹, L Karlsson^{1

10}, H Merisaari^{1

11

12}, T Paunio^{3

4}, H Karlsson^{1

5}, J J Tuulari^{1

5

13

14}

Affiliations

¹ FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, Turku Brain and Mind Center, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland.
² Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Philipps University of Marburg, 35037 Marburg, Germany.
³ Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Genomics and Biobank Unit, FI-00271 Helsinki, Finland.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and SleepWell Research Program, Faculty of Medicine, Helsinki University Central Hospital, University of Helsinki, 00100 Helsinki, Finland.
⁵ Department of Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland.
⁶ Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal H3A 0G4, Canada.
⁷ Department of Radiology, Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland.
⁸ Department of Pediatric Neurology, Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland.
⁹ Department of Medical Physics, Turku University Hospital, 20521 Turku, Finland.
¹⁰ Department of Child Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland.
¹¹ Department of Future Technologies, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland.
¹² Center of Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
¹³ Turku Collegium for Science and Medicine, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, Finland.
¹⁴ Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 2JD, UK.

PMID: 32676648
DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhaa158

Abstract

Psychiatric disease susceptibility partly originates prenatally and is shaped by an interplay of genetic and environmental risk factors. A recent study has provided preliminary evidence that an offspring polygenic risk score for major depressive disorder (PRS-MDD), based on European ancestry, interacts with prenatal maternal depressive symptoms (GxE) on neonatal right amygdalar (US and Asian cohort) and hippocampal volumes (Asian cohort). However, to date, this GxE interplay has only been addressed by one study and is yet unknown for a European ancestry sample. We investigated in 105 Finnish mother-infant dyads (44 female, 11-54 days old) how offspring PRS-MDD interacts with prenatal maternal depressive symptoms (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, gestational weeks 14, 24, 34) on infant amygdalar and hippocampal volumes. We found a GxE effect on right amygdalar volumes, significant in the main analysis, but nonsignificant after multiple comparison correction and some of the control analyses, whose direction paralleled the US cohort findings. Additional exploratory analyses suggested a sex-specific GxE effect on right hippocampal volumes. Our study is the first to provide support, though statistically weak, for an interplay of offspring PRS-MDD and prenatal maternal depressive symptoms on infant limbic brain volumes in a cohort matched to the PRS-MDD discovery sample.

Keywords: GxE interaction; MRI; brain development; hippocampus; limbic brain.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Amygdala / diagnostic imaging
Amygdala / pathology*
Child Development
Depression*
Depressive Disorder, Major / genetics*
Female
Hippocampus / diagnostic imaging
Hippocampus / pathology
Humans
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Maternal Behavior*
Multifactorial Inheritance
White People / genetics
White People / psychology

Grants and funding

CIHR/Canada