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Cord Blood Metabolome Is Highly Associated with Birth Weight, but Less Predictive for Later Weight Development
Christian Hellmuth1, Olaf Uhl, Marie Standl
1Division of Metabolic and Nutritional Medicine, Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital, University of Munich Medical Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Munich, Germany.
Insights
Cord blood metabolites can predict birth weight, but not long-term obesity risk. Specific lipids in cord blood are linked to higher or lower birth weights, indicating early metabolic programming.
Area of Science:
- Metabolomics
- Perinatal Epidemiology
- Developmental Biology
Background:
- Maternal factors during pregnancy can influence fetal metabolism, potentially predisposing infants to obesity.
- Cord blood metabolites are hypothesized to predict future growth trajectories and obesity risk.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the associations between cord blood metabolites and birth weight.
- To examine the relationship between cord blood metabolites and postnatal weight gain and adolescent BMI.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of over 700 cord blood samples from the German birth cohort study LISAplus.
- Targeted metabolomics platform measuring glycerophospholipid fatty acids (GPL-FA), polar lipids, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), and amino acids.
- Linear regression models adjusted for confounding variables to assess metabolite associations with growth parameters.
Main Results:
- Cord blood metabolites showed strong associations with birth weight.
- Specific lysophosphatidylcholines and GPL-FAs were positively related to birth weight.
- Certain NEFAs, GPL-FAs, and phosphatidylcholines (PCe) were associated with lower birth weight.
- No significant associations were found between cord blood metabolites and postnatal weight gain or adolescent BMI z-scores after multiple testing adjustments.
Conclusions:
- Cord blood metabolome profiling does not appear to predict long-term health outcomes like obesity.
- The intrauterine environment's metabolic programming effects on later health remain challenging to predict solely from cord blood analysis.
Background/Aims:
Fetal metabolism may be changed by the exposure to maternal factors, and the route to obesity may already set in utero. Cord blood metabolites might predict growth patterns and later obesity. We aimed to characterize associations of cord blood with birth weight, postnatal weight gain, and BMI in adolescence.
Methods:
Over 700 cord blood samples were collected from infants participating in the German birth cohort study LISAplus. Glycerophospholipid fatty acids (GPL-FA), polar lipids, non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA), and amino acids were analyzed with a targeted, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry based metabolomics platform. Cord blood metabolites were related to growth factors by linear regression models adjusted for confounding variables.
Results:
Cord blood metabolites were highly associated with birth weight. Lysophosphatidylcholines C16:1, C18:1, C20:3, C18:2, C20:4, C14:0, C16:0, C18:3, GPL-FA C20:3n-9, and GPL-FA C22:5n-6 were positively related to birth weight, while higher cord blood concentrations of NEFA C22:6, NEFA C20:5, GPL-FA C18:3n-3, and PCe C38:0 were associated with lower birth weight. Postnatal weight gain and BMI z-scores in adolescents were not significantly associated with cord blood metabolites after adjustment for multiple testing.
Conclusion:
Potential long-term programming effects of the intrauterine environment and metabolism on later health cannot be predicted with profiling of the cord blood metabolome.