Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 25, 2026

Modeling Encephalopathy of Prematurity Using Prenatal Hypoxia-ischemia with Intra-amniotic Lipopolysaccharide in Rats
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Modeling Encephalopathy of Prematurity Using Prenatal Hypoxia-ischemia with Intra-amniotic Lipopolysaccharide in Rats

Published on: November 20, 2015

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Impact of Prematurity on Metabolic Maturation

Kate Pearse1, Aneurin Young1,2, Mark J Johnson1,2,3

  • 1School of Human Development and Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton SO16 6YD, UK.

Journal of Proteome Research
|March 23, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Urinary citrate levels in preterm infants may predict growth. Higher citrate in the first two weeks is linked to better weight gain, offering a potential biomarker for improved infant growth outcomes.

Area of Science:

  • Neonatal Medicine
  • Metabolomics
  • Biochemistry

Background:

  • Growth failure in preterm infants is a major concern, linked to adverse neurodevelopmental and metabolic outcomes.
  • Understanding metabolic patterns in preterm infants is crucial for identifying growth predictors.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To characterize urinary metabolite patterns in extremely and very preterm infants.
  • To explore the relationship between these metabolites and infant growth over time.

Main Methods:

  • Untargeted hydrogen-1 nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy was employed.
  • Partial least-squares regression models analyzed metabolic variation related to age, growth, and nutrition.

Main Results:

  • Biochemical aging differed between extremely and very preterm infants when aligned to chronological age, but not postmenstrual age.
  • Urinary citrate was the sole metabolite positively associated with weight-for-age Z-score.
  • Early citrate excretion correlated with gestational age and increased WAZ from birth to discharge.

Conclusions:

  • Urinary citrate in the first two weeks of life is associated with improved infant weight gain.
  • Citrate may serve as a modifiable biomarker to enhance growth outcomes in preterm infants.

Keywords:
first 1000 daysgrowthmetabolic maturationmetabolomicsnutritionpreterm infants

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