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. 2025 Sep 21:e70108.
doi: 10.1111/mcn.70108. Online ahead of print.

Maternal Dietary Inflammatory Index and Biomarkers of Inflammation at Birth

Courtney Dow  1 , Rosalie Delvert  2 , Blandine de Lauzon-Guillain  1 , Judith van der Waerden  3 , Laetitia Davidovic  4 , Olfa Khalfallah  4 , Susana Barbosa  3 , Marie-Aline Charles  1 , Cédric Galera  5   6   7 , Barbara Heude  1
Affiliations

Maternal Dietary Inflammatory Index and Biomarkers of Inflammation at Birth

Courtney Dow et al. Matern Child Nutr. .

Abstract

We evaluated the association between the inflammatory potential of the maternal diet during pregnancy and levels of inflammatory biomarkers measured in cord blood and maternal serum at birth. Dietary inflammatory potential was calculated using the energy-adjusted dietary inflammatory index (E-DII) in the French EDEN and ELFE birth cohorts. Biomarkers of inflammation (interleukin [IL]-1β, IL-6, IL-10, tumor necrosis factor α [TNF-α]) were measured from cord blood (EDEN [n = 758]; ELFE [n = 899]) and maternal serum (in ELFE only; [n = 911]) collected at birth. Additionally, leptin was also measured from cord blood in EDEN (n = 1202) and C-reactive protein was measured from cord blood in ELFE (n = 895). Linear regression models, adjusted for confounders, were used to investigate the association between tertiles of the E-DII score and each log-transformed biomarker. There were no significant associations between the E-DII score and maternal or cord blood biomarkers in either cohort. The energy-adjusted dietary inflammatory index score during pregnancy was not associated with concentrations of inflammatory biomarkers in either maternal serum or cord blood at birth.

Keywords: adipokine; cohort; cytokine; dietary inflammatory index; inflammation; pregnancy; prenatal environment.

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