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Genetic variants in the genes of the sex steroid hormone metabolism and depressive symptoms during and after pregnancy

  • Maternal-Fetal Medicine
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study was to conduct an association analysis of depressive symptoms and polymorphisms in the ESR1, PGR, CYP19A1, and COMT genes in pregnant and postpartum women.

Methods

The Franconian Maternal Health Evaluation Study (FRAMES) recruited healthy pregnant women prospectively for assessment of maternal and fetal health. The German version of the 10-item Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) was completed at three time points in this prospective cohort study. Visit 1 was at study entry in the third trimester of pregnancy, visit 2 was shortly after birth, and visit 3 was 6–8 months after birth. Germline DNA and depression measurements from 361 pregnant women were available for analysis. Six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the above-mentioned genes were genotyped. After reconstruction of haplotypes for PGR (rs1042838 and rs10895068) and CYP19A1 (rs10046 and rs4646), a multifactorial linear mixed model was applied to the data to describe the association between haplotypes and depression values. The single SNPs for ESR1 (rs488133) and COMT (rs4680) were analyzed separately using linear mixed models analogously.

Results

The mean antepartum EPDS measurement was 5.1, the mean postpartal measurement after 48–72 h was 3.5, and the mean value 6–8 months postpartum was 4.2. The SNPs in PGR were reconstructed into three haplotypes. The most common haplotype was GG, with 63.43% of patients carrying two copies and 33.52% carrying one copy. For haplotype GA, the group of carriers of two copies (0.28%) was combined with the carriers of one copy (9.70%). Haplotype reconstruction using CYP19A1 SNPs resulted in three haplotypes. The most common haplotype was TC, with 25.48% of patients carrying two copies and 51.52% one copy. None of the haplotype blocks and neither of the two single SNPs showed any significant associations with EPDS values.

Conclusions

The candidate haplotypes analyzed in PGR and CYP19A1 and single SNPs in ESR1 and COMT did not show any association with depression scores as assessed by EPDS in this cohort of healthy unselected pregnant women.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Elisabeth Binder and her team at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry (Munich, Germany) for supporting the genotyping. We thank Michael Robertson for proofreading the manuscript.

Funding

The authors have not disclosed any funding.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Erlangen University Perinatal Center, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Erlangen University Hospital, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg, Universitätsstrasse 21–23, 91054, Erlangen, Germany

    Michael O. Schneider, Jutta Pretscher, Tamme W. Goecke, Matthias W. Beckmann, Peter A. Fasching & Eva Schwenke

  2. Department of Obstetrics, RoMed Clinic Rosenheim, Rosenheim, Germany

    Tamme W. Goecke

  3. Biostatistics Unit, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Erlangen University Hospital, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Lothar Häberle & Anne Engel

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Erlangen University Hospital, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Johannes Kornhuber

  5. Department of of Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Erlangen University Hospital, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Anna Eichler

  6. Institute of Human Genetics, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Arif B. Ekici

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  1. Michael O. Schneider
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Contributions

MOS: manuscript writing, project development. JP: project development. TWG: project development, data collection. LH: data analysis, writing review. AE: data analysis, manuscript writing. JK: project development. AE: project development. ABE: data collection. MWB: supervision. PAF: supervision, writing review, methodology, project development. ES: writing review, project development.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael O. Schneider.

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The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medical Faculty of Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen–Nuremberg.

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All of the patients provided written informed consent.

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Schneider, M.O., Pretscher, J., Goecke, T.W. et al. Genetic variants in the genes of the sex steroid hormone metabolism and depressive symptoms during and after pregnancy. Arch Gynecol Obstet 307, 1763–1770 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-022-06644-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-022-06644-8

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