TY - JOUR
T1 - Polyunsaturated fatty acid status at birth, childhood growth, and cardiometabolic risk
T2 - a pooled analysis of the MEFAB and RHEA cohorts
AU - Stratakis, Nikos
AU - Gielen, Marij
AU - Margetaki, Katerina
AU - de Groot, Renate H. M.
AU - Apostolaki, Maria
AU - Chalkiadaki, Georgia
AU - Vafeiadi, Marina
AU - Leventakou, Vasiliki
AU - Karachaliou, Marianna
AU - Godschalk, Roger W.
AU - Kogevinas, Manolis
AU - Stephanou, Euripides G.
AU - Zeegers, Maurice P.
AU - Chatzi, Leda
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding The MEFAB cohort was financially supported by the University Hospital of Maastricht (Profilerings Fonds), and the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, Grant number 904 62 186). The RHEA Mother Child Cohort in Crete project was financially supported by European projects [EU FP6-003-Food-3-NewGeneris-contract no. 16320, EU FP6 STREP Hiwate-contract no. 36224, EU FP7 ENV.2007.1.2.2.2. Project No. 211250 Escape, EU FP7-2008-ENV-1.2.1.4 Envirogenomarkers contract no. 226756, EU FP7-HEALTH-2009-single stage CHICOS contract no. 241604, EU FP7 ENV.2008.1.2.1.6. proposal no. 226285 ENRIECO, EU-FP7, proposal no. 264357 MeDALL, EU-FP7-HEALTH-2012 proposal no. 308333 HELIX], and the Greek Ministry of Health (Program of Prevention of obesity and neurodevelopmental disorders in preschool children, in Heraklion district, Crete, Greece: 2011-2014; “Rhea Plus”: Prevention Program of Environmental Risk Factors for Reproductive Health, and Child Health: 2012-2015).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2019/4
Y1 - 2019/4
N2 - Background/objectives Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) status during pregnancy has been suggested to influence offspring obesity and cardiometabolic health. We assessed whether prenatal PUFA exposure is associated with rapid infant growth, childhood BMI, and cardiometabolic profile.Subjects/methods In the Dutch MEFAB (n = 266) and Greek RHEA (n = 263) cohorts, we measured n-3 and n-6 PUFA concentrations in cord blood phospholipids, which reflect fetal exposure in late pregnancy. We defined rapid infant growth from birth to 6 months of age as an increase in weight z-score >0.67. We analyzed body mass index (BMI) as continuous and in categories of overweight/obesity at 4 and 6 years. We computed a cardiometabolic risk score at 6-7 years as the sum of waist circumference, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and blood pressure z-scores. Associations of PUFAs with child health outcomes were assessed using generalized linear models for binary outcomes and linear regression models for continuous ones after adjusting for important covariates, and for the pooled estimates, a cohort indicator.Results In pooled analyses, we found no association of PUFA levels with rapid infant growth, childhood BMI (beta per SD increase in the total n-3:n-6 PUFA ratio = -0.04 SD; 99% CI: -0.15, 0.06; P = 0.65 at 4 years, and -0.05 SD; 99% CI: -0.18, 0.08; P = 0.78 at 6 years), and overweight/obesity. We also found no associations for clustered cardiometabolic risk and its individual components. The results were similar across cohorts.Conclusions Our findings suggest that PUFA concentrations at birth are not associated with later obesity development and cardiometabolic risk in childhood.
AB - Background/objectives Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) status during pregnancy has been suggested to influence offspring obesity and cardiometabolic health. We assessed whether prenatal PUFA exposure is associated with rapid infant growth, childhood BMI, and cardiometabolic profile.Subjects/methods In the Dutch MEFAB (n = 266) and Greek RHEA (n = 263) cohorts, we measured n-3 and n-6 PUFA concentrations in cord blood phospholipids, which reflect fetal exposure in late pregnancy. We defined rapid infant growth from birth to 6 months of age as an increase in weight z-score >0.67. We analyzed body mass index (BMI) as continuous and in categories of overweight/obesity at 4 and 6 years. We computed a cardiometabolic risk score at 6-7 years as the sum of waist circumference, non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and blood pressure z-scores. Associations of PUFAs with child health outcomes were assessed using generalized linear models for binary outcomes and linear regression models for continuous ones after adjusting for important covariates, and for the pooled estimates, a cohort indicator.Results In pooled analyses, we found no association of PUFA levels with rapid infant growth, childhood BMI (beta per SD increase in the total n-3:n-6 PUFA ratio = -0.04 SD; 99% CI: -0.15, 0.06; P = 0.65 at 4 years, and -0.05 SD; 99% CI: -0.18, 0.08; P = 0.78 at 6 years), and overweight/obesity. We also found no associations for clustered cardiometabolic risk and its individual components. The results were similar across cohorts.Conclusions Our findings suggest that PUFA concentrations at birth are not associated with later obesity development and cardiometabolic risk in childhood.
KW - OFFSPRING BODY-COMPOSITION
KW - MATERNAL PLASMA N-3
KW - METABOLIC SYNDROME
KW - FOLLOW-UP
KW - ADIPOSE-TISSUE
KW - DOCOSAHEXAENOIC ACID
KW - DHA SUPPLEMENTATION
KW - PUFA CONCENTRATIONS
KW - MASS INDEX
KW - PREGNANCY
U2 - 10.1038/s41430-018-0175-1
DO - 10.1038/s41430-018-0175-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 29765163
SN - 0954-3007
VL - 73
SP - 566
EP - 576
JO - European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
JF - European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
IS - 4
ER -