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. 2014 Jan;99(1):330-7.
doi: 10.1210/jc.2013-3241. Epub 2013 Dec 20.

Maternal antenatal vitamin D status and offspring muscle development: findings from the Southampton Women's Survey

Nicholas C Harvey  1 , Rebecca J Moon, Avan Aihie Sayer, Georgia Ntani, Justin H Davies, M Kassim Javaid, Sian M Robinson, Keith M Godfrey, Hazel M Inskip, Cyrus Cooper; Southampton Women's Survey Study Group
Collaborators, Affiliations

Maternal antenatal vitamin D status and offspring muscle development: findings from the Southampton Women's Survey

Nicholas C Harvey et al. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2014 Jan.

Abstract

Context: Maternal 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] status in pregnancy has been associated with offspring bone development and adiposity. Vitamin D has also been implicated in postnatal muscle function, but little is known about a role for antenatal 25(OH)D exposure in programming muscle development.

Objective: We investigated the associations between maternal plasma 25(OH)D status at 34 weeks of gestation and offspring lean mass and muscle strength at 4 years of age.

Design and setting: We studied a prospective UK population-based mother-offspring cohort: the Southampton Women's Survey (SWS).

Participants: Initially, 12,583 nonpregnant women were recruited into the SWS, of whom 3159 had singleton pregnancies; 678 mother-child pairs were included in this analysis.

Main outcomes measured: At 4 years of age, offspring assessments included hand grip strength and whole-body dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry, yielding lean mass and percent lean mass. Physical activity was assessed by 7-day accelerometry in a subset of children (n=326).

Results: The maternal serum 25(OH)D concentration in pregnancy was positively associated with offspring height-adjusted hand grip strength (β=0.10 SD/SD, P=.013), which persisted after adjustment for maternal confounding factors, duration of breastfeeding, and child's physical activity at 4 years (β=0.13 SD/SD, P=.014). Maternal 25(OH)D was also positively associated with offspring percent lean mass (β=0.11 SD/SD, P=.006), but not total lean mass (β=0.06 SD/SD, P=.15). However, this association did not persist after adjustment for confounding factors (β=0.09 SD/SD, P=.11).

Conclusions: This observational study suggests that intrauterine exposure to 25(OH)D during late pregnancy might influence offspring muscle development through an effect primarily on muscle strength rather than on muscle mass.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Offspring grip strength and (B) percent lean mass at 4 years of age by quartiles of maternal serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D status at 34 weeks gestation (mean ± SEM)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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