Exposure to stress in the womb and soon after birth can cause a lifetime of immune system deficiencies that inhibit the ability to ward off infections and cancer, reports a new study.
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Harmful Effects of Stress During Pregnancy Could Last a Lifetime: Study"
‘Exposure to stress in the womb and soon after birth can cause molecular changes and inhibit the ability to ward off infections. ’
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"Mice for rest of their lives are rewired and reprogrammed in ways fundamentally different from those not exposed to glucocorticoids," said Yale immunobiologist Ruslan Medzhitov, senior author of the study and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. 
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Medzhitov and first author Jun-Young Hun, also of Yale, cataloged a host of physiological changes that occurred in mice given glucocorticoids, and that had serious consequences for the rest of their lives. As adults, for instance, the exposed mice were more susceptible to bacterial infections and tumors than mice without exposure. One specific physiological change was decreased activity in a key T cell that responds to pathogens and other threats to the host.
The study helps explain why individuals vary so widely in their ability to ward off infections, the authors said. It also provides an explanation for a social phenomenon found throughout human history: an emphasis on shielding women from stress during pregnancy.
"In all cultures, there are efforts to shelter women from stress during pregnancy," he said. "The effects of early life stress don’t just go away."
As more is learned about molecular changes caused by early exposure to stress, the more likely it is that medical science will find a way to minimize its damage, said the authors.
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Source-Eurekalert