https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-07/uoca-sel070721.php
News Release 7-Jul-2021
CU researchers say the data points to a health care disparity when it comes to caring for Black mothers and their children in the U.S.
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
In two recent articles published in Schizophrenia Bulletin, Sharon Hunter, PhD, an associate professor in the University of Colorado School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, and M. Camille Hoffman, MD, MSc, an associate professor in the University of Colorado School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, along with their research group, have uncovered a potential link between choline deficiency in Black pregnant women in the United States and increased risk of developmental and behavioral issues that can evolve into mental illness later in their children's lives.
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Choline is an essential nutrient that can be found in foods such as milk, red meats, and eggs. Based on previous studies of choline showing that it is vital for fetal neurodevelopment, including the development of inhibitory neurocircuits in the brain that are abnormal in individuals with schizophrenia and many of their family members, the group launched its first clinical trial in 2004. During the trial, they supplemented pregnant women with a specific form of choline called phosphatidylcholine, then monitored their children until the age of four. Phosphatidylcholine is less likely to cause side effects, such as stomach upset, associated with pure choline. The results of the trial showed that those inhibitory neurocircuits were functioning properly in more children from supplemented moms than in children whose mothers didn't receive the supplement.
"It showed that mothers who had lower choline levels during the second trimester of pregnancy gave birth to babies who were more likely to have worse neurodevelopmental scores, which can be a marker for later mental illness or behavioral problems," Hoffman says.
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