Cord blood leptin and insulin levels in association with mitochondrial DNA content

The developmental origins of health and disease theory states that a disturbance in the early life environment can contribute to disease risk in later life. Leptin and insulin are anorectic hormones involved in energy homeostasis and are crucial for foetal growth. Disturbances in the levels of these hormones contribute to obesity and diabetes. In adults, altered mitochondrial function is an important hallmark of metabolic disorders, including obesity and diabetes. However, the mitochondrial effects of early life metabolic variation are unexplored. We investigated whether there is an association between metabolic hormones and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) content in early life.

The study included 236 newborns from the FLEHS III birth cohort, Flanders (Belgium). Relative mtDNA content of cord blood leukocytes was determined using quantitative PCR. Cord blood levels of leptin and insulin were determined using immunoassays. We studied the association between these metabolic hormones and mtDNA content using multiple linear regression models, while accounting for covariates and potential confounders.

Leptin and insulin levels were positively associated with cord blood mtDNA content. mtDNA content was respectively 4.49% (95% CI 1.15-7.93; p = 0.008) and 1.60% (95% CI 0.31-2.91; p = 0.02) higher for a interquartile range increase of respectively cord blood leptin and insulin levels. In a sensitivity analysis, we observed that insulin and leptin were independently associated to mtDNA content and that insulin was stronger associated to mtDNA content in boys than in girls.

Neonatal metabolic hormones were associated with cord blood mtDNA content, which suggests that in early life the variation of mtDNA content might accommodate or reflect changes in the metabolic status.