Background: Although maternal infection and inflammation during pregnancy can adversely affect offspring birth weight (BW), whether low grade inflammation in the non-pregnant state predicts BW is unknown.
Aim: To evaluate relationships between offspring BW and pro- and anti-inflammatory factors measured in parous but non-pregnant women.
Subjects and methods: Data come from 234 parous Filipino females (21.5 ± 0.3 years) in the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey, a population-based birth cohort in Metropolitan Cebu, Philippines. Pro-inflammatory [Interleukin-6 (IL-6), Interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β), tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), C-reactive protein (CRP)] and anti-inflammatory [Interleukin-10 (IL-10)] factors were measured in fasting plasma when the women were not pregnant, and related to recalled offspring BW.
Results: BW in female offspring was lower only among women with high IL-1β. Although pro-inflammatory cytokines did not predict BW in male offspring, women with higher anti-inflammatory IL-10 gave birth to larger males. Women with a combination of low inflammatory (IL-6) and high anti-inflammatory (IL-10) factors (interaction p < 0.104) gave birth to the largest males.
Conclusion: Immune factors measured outside of pregnancy predict offspring BW in these young women. Stable variation in inflammatory phenotype could impact the gestational environment of offspring, thus pointing to potential inter-generational effects of chronic low-grade inflammation.