Background/aims: Impaired birth outcomes, like low birth weight, have consistently been associated with increased disease susceptibility to hypertension in later life. Alterations in the maternal or fetal metabolism might impact on fetal growth and influence birth outcomes. Discerning associations between the maternal and fetal metabolome and surrogate parameters of fetal growth could give new insight into the complex relationship between intrauterine conditions, birth outcomes, and later life disease susceptibility.
Methods: Using flow injection tandem mass spectrometry, targeted metabolomics was performed in serum samples obtained from 226 mother/child pairs at delivery. Associations between neonatal birth weight and concentrations of 163 maternal and fetal metabolites were analyzed.
Results: After FDR adjustment using the Benjamini-Hochberg procedure lysophosphatidylcholines (LPC) 14: 0, 16: 1, and 18: 1 were strongly positively correlated with birth weight. In a stepwise linear regression model corrected for established confounding factors of birth weight, LPC 16: 1 showed the strongest independent association with birth weight (CI: 93.63 - 168.94; P = 6.94×10-11 ). The association with birth weight was stronger than classical confounding factors such as offspring sex (CI: -258.81- -61.32; P = 0.002) and maternal smoking during pregnancy (CI: -298.74 - -29.51; P = 0.017).
Conclusions: After correction for multiple testing and adjustment for potential confounders, LPC 16: 1 showed a very strong and independent association with birth weight. The underlying molecular mechanisms linking fetal LPCs with birth weight need to be addressed in future studies.
Keywords: Birth Weight; DOHaD; Hypertension; Lysophosphatidylcholine; Metabolomics; Type 2 Diabetes.
© 2018 The Author(s). Published by S. Karger AG, Basel.