Lipid and lipoprotein changes throughout the term-period in neonates from the Toledo Study

Serum lipids and lipoproteins were studied in 548 newborns from the Toledo Study (Spain) selected according to the following criteria: single delivery alive childbirth, eutocic delivery with cephalic presentation, gestational age between 37.0 and 41.86 wk, body weight between 2.500 and 3.999 kg and Apgar score of > 7 at 1 min and > 9 at 5 min. Mean cord total cholesterol (TC) value (1.80 +/- 0.48 mmol/l) was in agreement with those of many studies. However, more than 5% of newborns had more than 2.60 mmol/l (100 mg/dl). TC was equally carried by LDL and HDL (0.81 +/- 0.40 vs 0.80 +/- 0.27 mmol/l, respectively). Triglyceride (Tg) values were 0.44 +/- 0.23 mmol/l the cut-point being (95th percentile) for future studies at 0.87 mmol/l. With the exception of Tg, serum and lipoprotein lipids were kept rather constant between wks 38 and 42. However, TC resulted significantly higher (p < 0.05) at wk 38 than at wk 37. Tg were positive and significantly correlated with gestational age (p < 0.001), showing a negative but significant correlation with the body mass index (p < 0.05) and with the Apgar score (p < 0.001) of term-newborns.