Examining Tryptophan/Kynurenine Metabolites to Understand Inflammaging and Perinatal Depression

This study will determine how the tryptophan metabolism pathway is expressed in the aging ovary as well as in the full term placenta in women diagnosed with perinatal depression and euthymic women. This work will be foundational in the future studies of the tryptophan metabolism utilizing human tissue and will aid in the understanding of inflammaging and perinatal depression. With this, my future directions are to examine placental tissue with the studies proposed here and further the literature on this novel pathway. Additionally, I will utilize this tissue to assess the inflammatory profiles between those women diagnosed with depression and those who remained euthymic to further investigate the roles of downstream tryptophan metabolites. I will be disseminating my results with the Center for Reproductive Science at Northwestern as well as at the Histochemical Society Annual Meeting. I will also aim to publish my results in a leading reproductive or histochemical journal.