Risk factors for postpartum depressive symptoms in low-income women with very low-birth-weight infants.

Purpose: This study examined factors associated with postpartum depressive symptoms in mothers with premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Subjects: A total of 113 new mothers with very low-birth-weight infants in their initial NICU admission were recruited from 2 urban hospitals servicing low-income minority communities.

Design: This study employed a cross-sectional design.

Depressive symptoms in the second trimester relate to low oxytocin levels in African-American women: a pilot study.

Low-income African-American women report elevated prenatal depressive symptoms more often (42 %) than the national average (20 %). In the USA in 2012, 16.5 % of African-American women experienced a premature birth (less than 36 completed gestational weeks) compared to 10.

Gender differences in acculturation, stress, and salivary cortisol response among former Soviet immigrants.

Post-immigration adaptation is characterized by chronic and acute acculturative stressors. Salivary cortisol is a commonly used hormonal marker of stress, but few studies have investigated its use as an indicator of acculturative stress and adjustment in immigrants. The purpose of this study was to examine relationships among predictors of adjustment (environmental and language mastery), self-reported stress outcomes (depressive symptoms, perceived stress, alienation), and salivary cortisol response in immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

Maternal and umbilical artery cortisol at birth: relationships with epidural analgesia and newborn alertness.

Background: Newborn alertness soon after birth facilitates mother-infant interaction and may be related to umbilical cortisol levels. Yet, little is known about whether epidural analgesia influences umbilical cortisol at birth.

Aim: The aims of this study were to explore relationships between exposure to epidural analgesia and maternal and umbilical cortisol; maternal and umbilical cortisol levels at birth; and umbilical cortisol and infant alertness after birth.

Signaling responses after exposure to 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone or 17 beta-estradiol in norepinephrine-induced hypertrophy of neonatal rat ventricular myocytes.

Androgens appear to enhance, whereas estrogens mitigate, cardiac hypertrophy. However, signaling pathways in cells for short (3 min) and longer term (48 h) treatment with 17beta-estradiol (E2) or 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) are understudied. We compared the effect of adrenergic stimulation by norepinephrine (NE; 1 microM) alone or in combination with DHT (10 nM) or E2 (10 nM) treatment in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVMs) by cell area, protein synthesis, sarcomeric structure, gene expression, phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated (ERK), and focal adhesion kinases (FAK), and phospho-FAK nuclear localization.