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Background/Objectives: Subcutaneous adipose tissue grows rapidly during the first months of life. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) has a quantitatively important function in adipose tissue fat accumulation and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) is a determinant of neonatal growth. Recent studies showed that LPL mass in non-heparinized serum (LPLm) was an index of LPL-mediated lipolysis of plasma triacylglycerol (TG). The objective was to know the influence of serum LPL and IGF-I on neonatal subcutaneous fat growth, especially on catch-up growth in low birth weight infants. Subjects/Methods: We included 47 healthy neonates (30 males, 17 females), including 7 small for gestational age. We measured serum LPLm and IGF-I concentrations at birth and 1 month, and analyzed those associations with subcutaneous fat accumulation. Results: Serum LPLm and IGF-I concentrations increased markedly during the first month, and positively correlated with the sum of skinfold thicknesses both at birth (r ¼ 0.573, P ¼ 0.0001; r ¼ 0.457, P ¼ 0.0035) and at 1 month (r ¼ 0.614, Po0.0001; r ¼ 0.787, Po0.0001, respectively). In addition, serum LPLm concentrations correlated inversely to very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL)-TG levels (r ¼ À0.692, Po0.0001 at birth; r ¼ À0.429, P ¼ 0.0052 at 1 month). Moreover, the birth weight Z-score had an inverse association with the postnatal changes in individual serum LPLm concentrations (r ¼ À0.639, Po0.0001). Conclusions: Both serum LPLm and IGF-I concentrations were the determinants of subcutaneous fat accumulation during the fetal and neonatal periods. During this time, LPL-mediated lipolysis of VLDL-TG may be one of the major mechanisms of rapid growth in subcutaneous fat tissue. Moreover, LPL, as well as IGF-I, may contribute to catch-up growth in smaller neonates.

Background: Febrile urinary tract infection (fUTI) is the most common serious bacterial infection in children. Despite this, there have been no studies examining the clinical features of pediatric fUTI in Japan. The purpose of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics of fUTI in Japanese children. Methods: A multicenter, retrospective, observational study was conducted at 21 hospitals in Japan. Children under the age of 15 years who were diagnosed with fUTI between 2008 and 2017 were included. The diagnostic criteria were a temperature over 38 C and the presence of a single bacterial pathogen in urine culture. Patient characteristics were obtained from medical records. Results: In total, 2,049 children were included in the study. The median age was 5 months, and 59.3% were male. It was found that 87.0% of the males and 53.2% of the females were under 1 year of age. The main causative pathogens identified were Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp., accounting for 76.6% and 9.8% of infections, respectively.

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