Maternal serum lipidomics identifies lysophosphatidic acid as a predictor of small for gestational age neonates

To discover lipidomic alterations during pregnancy in mothers who subsequently delivered small for gestational age (SGA) neonates and identify predictive lipid markers that can help recognize and manage these mothers, we carried out untargeted lipidomics on maternal serum samples collected between 24-28 weeks of gestation. We used a nested case-control study design and serum from mothers who delivered SGA and appropriate for gestational age babies. We applied untargeted lipidomics using mass spectrometry to characterize lipids and discover changes associated with SGA births during pregnancy. Multivariate pattern recognition software Collaborative Laboratory Integrated Reports (CLIR) was used for the post-analytical recognition of range differences in lipid ratios that could differentiate between SGA and control mothers and their integration for complete separation between the two groups. Here, we report changes in lipids from serum collected during pregnancy in mothers who delivered SGA neonates. In contrast to normal pregnancies where lysophosphatidic acid increased over the course of the pregnancy owing to increased activity of lysophospholipase D, we observed a decrease (32%; P = 0.05) of 20:4-lysophosphatidic acid in SGA mothers, which could potentially compromise fetal growth and development. Integration of lipid ratios in an interpretive tool (CLIR) could completely separate SGA mothers from controls demonstrating the power of untargeted lipidomic analyses for identifying novel predictive biomarkers. Additional studies are required for further assessment of the lipid biomarkers identified in this report.