Patterns of perinatal polyunsaturated fatty acid status and associated dietary or candidate-genetic factors

Aline Abou Assi; Barbara Heude; Sabine Plancoulaine; Catherine Sarté; Muriel Tafflet; Wen Lun Yuan; Marie-Aline Charles; Martine Armand; Jonathan Y Bernard

doi:10.1016/j.jlr.2024.100562

Patterns of perinatal polyunsaturated fatty acid status and associated dietary or candidate-genetic factors

J Lipid Res. 2024 May 16:100562. doi: 10.1016/j.jlr.2024.100562. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Aline Abou Assi¹, Barbara Heude², Sabine Plancoulaine³, Catherine Sarté⁴, Muriel Tafflet¹, Wen Lun Yuan⁵, Marie-Aline Charles¹, Martine Armand⁴, Jonathan Y Bernard¹

Affiliations

¹ Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Inserm, INRAE, Centre for Research in Epidemiology and StatisticS (CRESS), F-75004 Paris, France.
² Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Inserm, INRAE, Centre for Research in Epidemiology and StatisticS (CRESS), F-75004 Paris, France. Electronic address: Barbara.heude@inserm.fr.
³ Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Inserm, INRAE, Centre for Research in Epidemiology and StatisticS (CRESS), F-75004 Paris, France; Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, INSERM, CNRS, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL U1028 UMR5292, WAKING, F-69500, Bron, France.
⁴ Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CRMBM, Marseille, France.
⁵ Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Inserm, INRAE, Centre for Research in Epidemiology and StatisticS (CRESS), F-75004 Paris, France; Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR), Singapore.

PMID: 38762122
DOI: 10.1016/j.jlr.2024.100562

Abstract

Perinatal exposure to omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) can be characterized through biomarkers in maternal or cord blood, or breast milk. Objectives were to describe perinatal PUFA status combining multiple biofluids, and to investigate how it was influenced by dietary intake during pregnancy and maternal FADS and ELOVL gene polymorphisms. This study involved 1,901 mother-child pairs from the EDEN cohort, with PUFA levels measured in maternal and cord erythrocytes, and colostrum. Maternal dietary PUFA intake during the last trimester was derived from a food frequency questionnaire. Twelve single nucleotide polymorphisms in FADS and ELOVL genes were genotyped from maternal DNA. Principal component analysis incorporating PUFA levels from the three biofluids identified patterns of perinatal PUFA status. Spearman's correlations explored associations between patterns and PUFA dietary intake, and linear regression models examined pattern associations with FADS or ELOVL haplotypes. Five patterns were retained: "High omega-3 LC-PUFAs, low omega-6 LC-PUFAs"; "Omega-6 LC-PUFAs"; "Colostrum LC-PUFAs"; "Omega-6 precursor (LA) and DGLA"; "Omega-6 precursor and colostrum ALA". Maternal omega-3 LC-PUFA intakes were correlated with "High omega-3 LC-PUFAs, low omega-6 LC-PUFAs" (r(DHA) = 0.33) and "Omega-6 LC-PUFAs" (r(DHA) = -0.19) patterns. Strong associations were found between FADS haplotypes and PUFA patterns except for "High omega-3 LC-PUFAs, low omega-6 LC-PUFAs". Lack of genetic association with the "High omega-3 LC-PUFAs, low omega-6 LC-PUFAs" pattern, highly correlated with maternal omega-3 LC-PUFA intake, emphasizes the importance of adequate omega-3 LC-PUFA intake during pregnancy and lactation. This study offers a more comprehensive assessment of perinatal PUFA status and its determinants.

Keywords: EDEN mother-child cohort study; ELOVL genes; FADS genes; dietary fat; epidemiology; omega-3 fatty acids; patterns of perinatal PUFA status; phospholipids/metabolism; pregnancy.