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Gestational Age and the Cord Blood Lipidomic Profile in Late Preterm and Term Infants

Kate McCloskey1,2,3, Alysha M De Livera3, Fiona Collier1,2,4

  • 1Murdoch Children's Research Institute, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.

Neonatology
|June 26, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Gestational age significantly impacts infant cord blood lipid profiles, mirroring adult body mass index variations. This highlights critical metabolic shifts during late gestation for fetal development and long-term health.

Area of Science:

  • Perinatal medicine
  • Metabolomics
  • Developmental biology

Background:

  • Lipid metabolism is crucial for fetal development and cardiometabolic health.
  • Late gestation involves intense metabolic activity.
  • Lipidomics enables detailed infant lipid profile analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Describe lipidomic profile variations in late preterm and term infants.
  • Compare infant lipidomic variations to adult profiles with clinical relevance.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the Barwon Infant Study (n=1,074), a population-derived pre-birth cohort.
  • Measured cord blood lipid profiles using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (n=225).
  • Employed multiple linear regression to analyze associations between gestational age and lipid profiles, adjusting for covariates; compared findings with adult data (San Antonia Family Heart Study, n=994).

Main Results:

  • Gestational age independently associated with 39% of lipid species abundances.
  • Observed variations in infant lipid profiles with increasing gestational age paralleled some adult variations linked to increasing body mass index (BMI).

Conclusions:

  • A strong link exists between gestational age and the cord blood lipid profile at birth.
  • Metabolic changes in late gestation are critical for infant development.
  • Gestational age-related lipid profile variations in infants are analogous to adult BMI-related differences.
Abstract

Keywords:
Developmental origins of diseaseGestational ageLipid metabolismNeonate

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