Relationship between changes in amino acid metabolism during pregnancy and postpartum depression.

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K19761
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 59:Sports sciences, physical education, health sciences, and related fields
• Research Institution: Fujita Health University
• Principal Investigator: Saito Kuniaki 藤田医科大学, 保健学研究科, 教授 (80262765)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 山本 康子 藤田医科大学, 保健学研究科, 准教授 (00331869) ; 藤垣 英嗣 藤田医科大学, 保健学研究科, 講師 (00612631) ; 毛利 彰宏 藤田医科大学, 保健学研究科, 准教授 (20597851) ; 星 雅人 藤田医科大学, 保健学研究科, 講師 (40633996)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-06-29 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 周産期うつ病 / アミノ酸代謝 / トリプトファン代謝

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Postpartum depression is a common disorder that occurs in approximately 5%-10% of pregnant women and has a negative impact not only on the affected mother but also on the child. This study aimed to establish molecular markers that allow detection of postpartum depression by performing metabolome analysis on prenatal and postnatal serum samples from perinatal pregnant subjects.
According to the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale, the subjects were divided into a nondepressive (ND) group, a postpartum depressive (PD) group, and a continuous depressive (CD) group.Principal component analysis revealed that the amino acid pattern in the PD group was different from that in the ND group. However, the PD group showed a pattern similar to that of the CD group. In the PD group, a correlation was found between the postpartum depression score and glutamic acid.These results demonstrate that the onset of postpartum depression may be predicted by examining the amino acid profile before childbirth.

Free Research Field

病態生化学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本検討により産前のトリプトファン代謝やアミノ酸プロファイルを検討する事で、産後の抑うつ病態の発症が予測できる可能性が示唆されたことから、広く臨床に貢献できる検討であると考えられる。