Maternal and Pregnancy Related Predictors of Cardiometabolic Traits in Newborns

Abstract

BackgroundThe influence of multiple maternal and pregnancy characteristics on offspring cardiometabolic traits at birth is not well understood and was evaluated in this study.Methods and FindingsThe Family Atherosclerosis Monitoring In earLY life (FAMILY) Study prospectively evaluated 11 cardiometabolic traits in 901 babies born to 857 mothers. The influence of maternal age, health (pre-pregnancy weight, blood pressure, glycemic status, lipids), health behaviors (diet, activity, smoking) and pregnancy characteristics (gestational age at birth, gestational weight gain and placental-fetal ratio) were examined. Greater gestational age influenced multiple newborn cardiometabolic traits including cord blood lipids, glucose and insulin, body fat and blood pressure. In a subset of 442 singleton mother/infant pairs, principal component analysis grouped 11 newborn cardiometabolic traits into 5 components (anthropometry/insulin, 2 lipid components, blood pressure and glycemia), accounting for 74% of the variance of the 11 outcome variables. Determinants of these components, corrected for sex and gestational age, were examined. Baby anthropometry/insulin was independently predicted by higher maternal pre-pregnancy weight (standardized estimate 0.30) and gestational weight gain (0.30; both p<0.0001) and was inversely related to smoking during pregnancy (−0.144; p = 0.01) and maternal polyunsaturated to saturated fat intake (−0.135;p = 0.01). Component 2 (HDL-C/Apo Apolipoprotein1) was inversely associated with maternal age. Component 3 (blood pressure) was not clustered with any other newborn cardiometabolic trait and no associations with maternal pregnancy characteristics were identified. Component 4 (triglycerides) was positively associated with maternal hypertension and triglycerides, and inversely associated with maternal HDL and age. Component 5 (glycemia) was inversely associated with placental/fetal ratio (−0.141; p = 0.005). LDL-C was a bridging variable between the lipid factors and glycemia.ConclusionsMaternal health, health behaviours and placenta to fetal weight ratio are associated with newborn cardiometabolic traits over and above gestational age. Future investigations are needed to determine if these factors remain important determinants of cardiometabolic health throughout childhood.

Body Mass Index, Waist Circumference, and the Clustering of Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Early Childhood

“…Consistent with our findings, PCA of 11 cardiometabolic risk factors among 442 newborns, measured at birth, revealed five principal components defined as anthropometry/insulin, HDL‐C/Apo‐A1, triglycerides, blood pressure, and glycemia . In a study of non‐traditional cardiovascular risk factors in a high‐risk population of a Canadian First Nations population age 10–19 years, five factors were identified: adiposity, lipids/adiponectin, inflammation, blood pressure, and glucose tolerance .…”

Maternal and Fetal Determinants of Neonatal Body Composition

“…However, no differences in FM% could be found in neonates of mothers with a high weight gain during pregnancy compared to those with a low weight gain. It has been reported that neonates of women who gained excessive weight in the first part of pregnancy have higher FM% compared to neonates of women who gained weight later in pregnancy [31,32,33]. As it is common in the Netherlands to gain more weight in the last trimester of pregnancy [34], this might explain why we found no differences in FM% in neonates of mothers with a high weight gain compared to those without.…”

Associations of maternal prenatal smoking with umbilical cord blood hormones: the Project Viva cohort

“…Most prior studies found no difference in cord blood leptin [12, 14, 15, 21] or adiponectin [14] in infants of mothers who smoked versus did not smoke during pregnancy, although a few found lower cord blood leptin [18] and adiponectin [12, 20] in infants of smokers. While prior studies did not evaluate the association between prenatal smoking and C-peptide, thought to be a more stable marker of pancreatic function than insulin due to its longer half-life [38], of two studies that evaluated cord blood insulin, one [19] found lower insulin in smokers, and the other [14] found no difference in smokers versus non-smokers. Thus, while prenatal smoking has been associated with adverse cardiometabolic health later in life [3, 4], this may not be a result of alterations in leptin, adiponectin, insulin, or C-peptide in utero .…”