Fig. 2: Stressed newborns present altered ChE activities, reflecting cholinergic system involvement. | Molecular Psychiatry

Fig. 2: Stressed newborns present altered ChE activities, reflecting cholinergic system involvement.

From: Maternal prenatal stress induces sex-dependent changes in tRNA fragment families and cholinergic pathways in newborns

Fig. 2

a The cholinesterases AChE and BChE hydrolyze acetylcholine into acetate and choline. AChE is found predominantly in the brain and BChE in the periphery. b Balance between the two ChEs in the blood reflects different diseases and disorders. c Pipeline used to assess activities of ChEs in our cohort. d Boxplots comparing AChE and BChE activities in the serum of mothers and newborns (AChE: mothers, n = 69; newborns, n = 63. BChE: mothers, n = 68; newborns, n = 67). e Ratios between newborn and mother dyads for AChE (n = 62) and BChE (n = 64). The grey line indicates a ratio of one (equal ChE activities in mothers and newborns). P-values < 0.05, Mann–Whitney U test. IQR method to remove outliers was used in both d and e. Created with BioRender.

Back to article page