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Observational Study
. 2019 Oct 4;9(1):14321.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-50693-0.

Evidence from 3-month-old infants shows that a combination of postnatal feeding and exposures in utero shape lipid metabolism

Samuel Furse  1 , Stuart G Snowden  1 , Laurentya Olga  2 , Philippa Prentice  2 , Ken K Ong  2   3 , Ieuan A Hughes  2 , Carlo L Acerini  2 , David B Dunger  2 , Albert Koulman  4   5
Affiliations
Observational Study

Evidence from 3-month-old infants shows that a combination of postnatal feeding and exposures in utero shape lipid metabolism

Samuel Furse et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

We tested the hypothesis that both postnatal feeding and conditions in utero affect lipid metabolism in infants. Infants who experienced restrictive growth conditions in utero and others exposed to maternal hyperglycaemia were compared to a control group with respect to feeding mode. Dried blood spots were collected from a pilot subset of infant participants of the Cambridge Baby Growth Study at 3mo. Groups: (a) a normal gestation (control, n = 40), (b) small for gestational age (SGA, n = 34) and (c) whose mothers developed hyperglycaemia (n = 59). These groups were further stratified by feeding mode; breastfed, formula-fed or received a mixed intake. Their phospholipid, glyceride and sterol fractions were profiled using direct infusion mass spectrometry. Statistical tests were used to identify molecular species that indicated differences in lipid metabolism. The abundance of several phospholipids identified by multivariate analysis, PC(34:1), PC(34:2) and PC-O(34:1), was 30-100% higher across all experimental groups. SM(39:1) was around half as abundant in in utero groups among breastfed infants only. The evidence from this pilot study shows that phospholipid metabolism is modulated by both conditions in utero and postnatal feeding in a cohort of 133 Caucasian infants, three months post partum.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The abundance of candidate biomarkers in infants with normal conditions in utero as well as in SGA and MHG. Only these four lipids passed FDR based on a Bonferroni adjusted significance threshold. Panel (A) PC(34:2), isobaric with PE(37:2); (B) PC(34:1), isobaric with PE(37:1); (C) PC-O(34:1), isobaric with PC-P(34:0); (D) SM(39:1). No. variables = 340. p-Values for Bonferroni corrected T-test: for dependent variables = 0·00271 (marked*) and independent variables = 0·000147 (marked**) respectively.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Principal Component Analyses of lipid profiles of infants born as SGA or from mothers with gestational diabetes (green) against controls (red).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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