Assessment of ten trace elements in umbilical cord blood and maternal blood: association with birth weight

Abstract

BackgroundTrace elements are an essential nutritional component for humans and inadequate tissue-concentrations may have a significant effect on fetal size.ObjectiveTo measure ten trace elements in blood samples from mothers and their newborns, and assess their association with anthropometric characteristics at birth. The effects of other factors on fetal growth, such as biologic characteristics of the infant and mother, were analysed.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in the Hospital general, University of Valencia, Spain. Healthy pregnant women, and their full-term infants were selected (n = 54 paired samples). Infants were grouped according to birth weight: small for gestational age (SGA n = 11), appropriate (AGA n = 30), and large (LGA n = 13). Anthropometric and biologic characteristics of the infant and mother were recorded. Levels of ten essential elements: arsenic (As), barium (Ba), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), chrome (Cr), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), manganese (Mn), selenium (Se) and zinc (Zn), in maternal and cord plasma samples were determined. Samples were obtained from the umbilical cord immediately after delivery and the samples of their mothers were drawn at 2–4 h after delivery.ResultsThe analysis identified that cord blood Cu (p = 0.017) and maternal blood Ba and Mg (p = 0.027 and p = 0.002, respectively) concentrations were significantly higher among SGA infants compared to AGA and LGA infants. A multiple linear regression analysis showed that increased umbilical cord Cu concentration (adjusted β −146.4 g, 95 % CI −255 to −37.7; p = 0.009), maternal smoking during pregnancy (adjusted β −483.8 g, 95 % CI −811.7 to −155.9; p = 0.005), shorter gestational age (adjusted β 350.1 g, 95 % CI 244.5 to 455.8; p = 0.000), and female sex (adjusted β −374 g, 95 % CI −648 to −100; p = 0.009) were significantly associated with decreased birth weight. Maternal anaemia was positively associated with birth weight (adjusted β 362 g, 95 % CI 20.8 to 703.1; p = 0.038). No significant associations were found between maternal trace elements and birth weight in multivariate analysis.ConclusionsWe did not observe significant associations of cord blood trace elements other than Cu and maternal trace elements with birth weight in the multivariate analyses.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12967-015-0654-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Birth Weight in Relation to Maternal Blood Levels of Selected Elements in Slovenian Populations: A Cross-sectional Study

“…Mn is an important cofactor in enzyme reactions in bone formation and in metabolic regulation of levels of amino acid, lipid, protein and carbohydrate [25,27]. However, in contrast to the present study, only non-significant or non-linear correlations between birth weight and Mn have been reported [22,23,25,26].…”

“…Studies have shown significant direct correlations between birth weight and maternal levels of zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu) in serum [21]. As for manganese (Mn), it has been suggested that Mn levels in maternal whole blood influence birth weight [22,23], while the absence of a correlation between birth weight and Mn, Cu, Zn and selenium (Se) in maternal blood has also been reported [24][25][26]. Levels of Mn in maternal blood have been found to increase throughout pregnancy [27,28], while lower or higher Mn concentrations in maternal blood has been associated with low birth weight (U-shaped relationship) [29,30].…”

Selected trace elements concentrations in pregnancy and their possible role — literature review

“…Ugwuja et al found that copper concentration in maternal serum negatively correlated with the newborns head circumference [20]. A negative correlation between cord blood copper levels and neonates birth weight was observed by Bermudez et al [21]. It remains unclear whether high copper levels are a cause or a consequence of poor growth of the fetus.…”

“…Copper is a component of superoxide dismutase, catalase and cytochrome oxidase, and as such plays an important role in oxidation reactions. In addition, by contributing to the formation of ceruloplasmin, copper plays an important role in the absorption and metabolism of iron [19][20][21].…”

Exposure to endocrine disruptors during adulthood: consequences for female fertility

“…In contrast, one study conducted in Inner Mongolia, China reported that infants born in areas with the highest levels of As (> 100 μg/L) were heavier on average when compared to those born in the lowest levels of As (< 20 μg/L) (Myers et al 2010). However, several studies reported no associations between maternal As exposure via drinking water (Bloom et al 2014; Ferguson et al 2013), maternal blood As levels (Bermudez et al 2015; Thomas et al 2015), cord blood As levels (Bermudez et al 2015), maternal urinary levels of As or Hg (Bashore et al 2014; Laine et al 2015; Ou et al 2015), maternal blood Hg levels (Al-Saleh et al 2014), cord blood Hg levels (Al-Saleh et al 2014; Bashore et al 2014), maternal urinary Pb levels (Sun et al 2014), maternal blood Pb levels (Al-Saleh et al 2014; Sun et al 2014; Thomas et al 2015), or cord blood Pb levels (Al-Saleh et al 2014; Torres-Sanchez et al 1999) and infant birthweight or incidence of low birth weight or small for gestational age infants.…”