Awardee OrganizationUNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Description
Abstract Text
PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT—PROJECT 2
The prevalence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) has continued to climb among US women, despite
greater prevention efforts. Pregnancy may provide an understudied window into a woman’s long-term
cardiovascular health. Normal physiological adaptations to support a fetus can act as a stressor on a woman’s
body, potentially uncovering or exacerbating underlying chronic conditions. Cardiovascular-related
complications, such as preeclampsia and hypertension, may have persistent effects into the postpartum period
and have been related to elevated CVD risk in later life. Moreover, environmental exposures such as air pollution
have been associated with altered maternal blood pressure and lipid homeostasis, while psychosocial stressors
may independently influence maternal health by increasing inflammation and risk of prenatal hypertensive
disorders. Efforts to understand the roles of both the environment and psychosocial stress in prenatal
cardiovascular complications and long-term maternal health risks may be most critical among health disparity
populations living in urban communities, who disproportionately experience the combined impacts of multiple
social, physical, and environmental stressors that may exacerbate health risks. Despite growing evidence of the
impact of such exposures on maternal cardiovascular health during pregnancy, there is little to no research
available on whether environmental exposures and social stressors during the prenatal period may enhance a
mother’s cardiovascular risk in the postpartum period and into later life, particularly in minority populations. Even
less is known about the mechanisms underlying these effects in the postpartum context, but recent studies
support a key role for miRNAs in both pregnancy and in risk of CVD and suggest that these epigenetic regulators
can be modulated by environmental exposures. We propose to investigate whether prenatal traffic-related and
ambient air pollution exposures increase maternal postpartum cardiovascular effects in 500 women in the
MADRES cohort, a prospective pregnancy cohort of predominantly Hispanic, socioeconomically-disadvantaged
women. We will accomplish this by the following specific aims: (1) investigate the impact of air pollutants and
social stressors during pregnancy on trajectories of cardiovascular risk factors in the first four years postpartum
and examine whether these effects vary by pregnancy-related complications and acculturation factors; and (2)
determine the role of cardiovascular-related miRNA in prenatal air pollution-related associations in
cardiovascular health trajectories in the first four years postpartum, and test whether they mediate these
associations and examine their functional relevance. These results may shed light on the contribution of
environmental and social stressors to CVD risk factors in the postpartum period and could be critical for
identifying women at greater risk of developing chronic disease in later life.
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
CFDA Code
DUNS Number
072933393
UEI
G88KLJR3KYT5
Project Start Date
01-September-2015
Project End Date
31-March-2026
Budget Start Date
01-April-2024
Budget End Date
31-March-2025
Project Funding Information for 2024
Total Funding
$259,876
Direct Costs
$154,331
Indirect Costs
$105,545
Year
Funding IC
FY Total Cost by IC
2024
National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities
$259,876
Year
Funding IC
FY Total Cost by IC
Sub Projects
No Sub Projects information available for 5P50MD015705-10 5884
Publications
Publications are associated with projects, but cannot be identified with any particular year of the project or fiscal year of funding. This is due to the continuous and cumulative nature of knowledge generation across the life of a project and the sometimes long and variable publishing timeline. Similarly, for multi-component projects, publications are associated with the parent core project and not with individual sub-projects.
No Publications available for 5P50MD015705-10 5884
Patents
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Outcomes
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No Outcomes available for 5P50MD015705-10 5884
Clinical Studies
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History
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