Allopregnanolone levels and depressive symptoms during pregnancy in relation to single nucleotide polymorphisms in the allopregnanolone synthesis pathway.

Allopregnanolone levels and depressive symptoms during pregnancy in relation to single nucleotide polymorphisms in the allopregnanolone synthesis pathway. Horm Behav. 2017 Jun 27;: Authors: Hellgren C, Comasco E, Skalkidou A, Sundström-Poromaa I Abstract Allopregnanolone, a neurosteroid whose levels rise throughout gestation, putatively stabilizes antenatal mood. The present study aimed to investigate associations of plasma allopregnanolone to antenatal depressive symptoms, as well as to genetic and obstetric factors. Allopregnanolone plasma levels from 284 pregnant women were measured around gestational week 18. Haplotype tag single nucleotide polymorphisms in the aldo-keto reductase family 1, members C2 and C4 (AKR1C2, AKR1C4), and steroid 5 alpha-reductase 1 and 2 (SRD5A1, and SRD5A2) genes were genotyped in a larger sample of pregnant women (n=1351). The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was administered via web-questionnaires in gestational weeks 17 and 32. Demographic and obstetric data was retrieved from web-questionnaires and medical records. There was no association between allopregnanolone levels and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, no associations between allopregnanolone level and synthesis pathway genotypes were found after accounting for multiple comparisons. However, exploratory analyses suggested that the women who were homozygous for the minor allele of the AKR1C2 polymorphism rs1937863 had nominally lowe...
Source: Hormones and Behavior - Category: Endocrinology Authors: Tags: Horm Behav Source Type: research