No abstract

No abstract

Japanese FetusesTetsuo Andoh1, Hidenori Uda1,2, Nobuyuki Yoshimitsu3, Hiromichi Hatano4 , Teppei Ueda5, Youichi Iwamatsu1'2 and Suminori Akiba1We examined serum cholesterol and fatty-acid levels of cord blood and maternal blood samples collected from 193 Japanese fetuses and their mothers. Our study, which is the largest study of this kind ever conducted in Japan, is the first Japanese study reporting that total, high density lipoprotein (HDL) and non-HDL cholesterol levels in females were statistically significantly higher than those in males; the sex differences of total, HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels were 8.5 mg/dl (P= 0.002), 4.5 mg/dl (P= 0.004) and 4.1 mg/dl (P= 0.045), respectively. The sex difference of total cholesterol was attributable to both HDL and non-HDL cholesterol. The sex of fetuses didn't show evident differences in cholesterol levels in maternal sera. Fatty-acid levels in cord blood were also higher in female fetuses than in male fetuses.However, none of the differences except for monoene fatty acids were statistically significant.Further investigations seem warranted to elucidate the mechanisms involved in our results.

Objective To investigate whether umbilical cord serum lipid levels differ with mode of delivery.Design Retrospective observation study.Population f i o hundred and ninety mothers aged 29.1 years (SD 4.7) who had vaginal delivery, and 44 mothers aged 30.4 years (SD 4.7) who had elective caesarean section were enrolled.Main outcome measures Maternal and umbilical cord blood were obtained immediately after delivery.Serum lipid levels including total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol, saturated fatty acid, mono-unsaturated fatty acid and polyunsaturated fatty acid were measured. Obstetric variables and serum lipid levels were compared between the two groups. In each group the correlations of fetal serum lipid levels with maternal serum lipid levels were investigated.Results There were no significant differences in maternal age, neonatal weight, gestational duration, placental weight and neonatal gender distribution between the two groups. Only the two fetal serum lipid levels (including total cholesterol and non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol) showed a correlation with maternal fetal lipid levels with correlation coefficients > 0.3 in the caesarean section group. However, saturated fatty acid, mono-unsaturated fatty acid and total fatty acid levels in the non-high density lipoprotein low density lipoprotein, very low density lipoprotein, intermediate density lipoprotein and free fatty acid fraction in the umbilical cord serum were significantly higher in the vaginal delivery cases ( P < 0-01).Conclusions Umbilical cord serum levels of saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids increase during vaginal delivery.

No abstract