A latest study suggests that stress and tobacco-abuse during pregnancy increases the risk of smoking in daughters.
"Our findings highlight the particular vulnerability of daughters to long-term adverse outcomes following maternal stress and smoking during pregnancy," Dr. Laura Stroud, of The Miriam Hospital, Rhode Island, said in a news release.
For the study, the researchers examined 1,086 pregnant women registered in a large, national, long-term health project that began in 1959. The authors measured the women's cortisol and testosterone levels and recorded their smoking status. The 40-year long study also involved the participants' children that included 649 daughters and 437 sons, who were later tracked for the study.
The results revealed exposure to nicotine and stress hormone cortisol increased the risk of smoking in female but not male offspring.
"We do not yet know why this is, but possible mechanisms include sex differences in stress hormone regulation in the placenta and adaptation to prenatal environmental exposures," Stroud added. "Also, cortisol and nicotine may affect developing male and female brains differently. If daughters of smoking mothers are more likely to grow up nicotine dependent, the result is a dangerous cycle of intergenerational transmission of nicotine addiction."
The researchers stated that the maternal smoking during pregnancy has been shown to be an independent risk factor for nicotine dependence. However, they are unsure of the pathways or mechanisms responsible for this.
The study also found that maternal smoking and high stress hormones represent a 'double-hit' increasing the offspring's risk for nicotine addiction as an adult.
"This new data may help us focus our attention on individuals at greatest risk for later smoking," Dr John Krystal, editor of Biological Psychiatry, said in a news release. "It is interesting female, but not male, offspring seemed to be at greatest risk. Sex differences in the vulnerability to smoking are important and merit further study."
The findings are published in the journal Biological Psychiatry.
