Associations Between Maternal Lipid Blood Levels at the 13th Week of Pregnancy and Offspring’s Adiposity at Age 11-12 Years

Abstract

Context There is increasing evidence that intra-uterine lipid metabolism influences the adiposity of the newborn and the first years thereafter. It remains unclear if these effects persist when these children are growing older. Objective This study examined the associations between maternal lipid blood levels during 13 th week of pregnancy and offspring’s adiposity, measured at age 11-12, and if these associations were moderated by the child’s sex. Methods Data were obtained from a community-based birth cohort, the Amsterdam Born Children and their Development (ABCD) study. At a median of 13 weeks’ gestation, non-fasting blood samples of triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), free fatty acids (FFA) and apolipoprotein B/apolipoprotein A1 ratio (ApoB/ApoA1) were measured. Offspring’s body mass index (BMI), subcutaneous fat (SCF), waist-to-height-ratio (WHtR) and fat percentage (fat%) were measured at age 11-12. Mothers with at-term born children were included (n=1,853). Multivariable linear regression analyses were performed to assess the associations between maternal lipids and each offspring’s adiposity outcome, separately. Sex differences were additionally evaluated. Results TG, TC, ApoB/ApoA1 and FFA were significantly positively associated with BMI, WHtR and fat% (adjusted for gestational age at blood sampling, child’s age, sex and sexual maturation). After additional adjustments for potential confounders and covariates, only TG remained significantly associated with WHtR (0.45, 95%CI: -0.007; 0.91). There were no associations between maternal lipids and SCF and no clear sex-specific results were found. Conclusion Overall, our results do not strongly support that maternal lipid profile during 13 th week of pregnancy has programming effects on adiposity in preadolescence.

Maternal prenatal cholesterol levels predict offspring weight trajectories during childhood in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study

“…The association between maternal prenatal cholesterol levels and offspring growth beyond 2 years of age [ 10 ] has scarcely been studied previously. In accordance with other studies [ 11 – 13 ], we did not find a significant association between maternal prenatal cholesterol levels and offspring BMI during childhood. This might be related to the relatively small regression coefficients for the association between maternal cholesterol levels and offspring weight.…”

“…This might be related to the relatively small regression coefficients for the association between maternal cholesterol levels and offspring weight. Furthermore, studies have found a positive association between maternal prenatal TC level with offspring adiposity at 4 years of age [8] and fat percentage at 5-6 years of age [9], and inconsistent associations between maternal prenatal TG level with offspring growth during childhood have been reported [9][10][11][12][13]. This inconsistency might partly be explained by differences in adjustment for maternal BMI and glucose level.…”

“…Non-fasting blood samples were obtained in mean (standard deviation [SD], min-max) gestational week 19 [1,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27] among the mothers and 19 [2, among the fathers [34]. TC, LDL-C, HDL-C, triglycerides (TG), apoB, apoA1, apoB/apoA1 ratio, and glucose levels were measured in EDTA plasma samples by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy at the accredited laboratory Nightingale Health in Finland [38].…”

“…Maternal cholesterol levels during pregnancy might also affect offspring growth during childhood, which has previously been studied to a limited extent [8][9][10][11][12][13]. This is relevant since about 30% of Norwegian and American women of reproductive age have elevated total cholesterol (TC) level [14,15].…”

Lipid metabolism during pregnancy: consequences for mother and child

“…HDL-C levels and apolipoprotein A1 (apoA1) increase 20–40% from early pregnancy onwards and plateau around 20–24 weeks [ 12 ]. Lipid levels in pregnancy and the magnitude of these changes during pregnancy are influenced by many factors, including prepregnancy lipid levels and BMI, age, diet, and ethnicity [ 8 , 14 , 15 ▪ , 16 , 17 ].…”