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Association between serum lipoprotein lipase mass concentration and subcutaneous fat accumulation during neonatal period

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 64, pages 447–453 (2010)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Subcutaneous adipose tissue grows rapidly during the first months of life. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) has a quantitatively important function in adipose tissue fat accumulation and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) is a determinant of neonatal growth. Recent studies showed that LPL mass in non-heparinized serum (LPLm) was an index of LPL-mediated lipolysis of plasma triacylglycerol (TG). The objective was to know the influence of serum LPL and IGF-I on neonatal subcutaneous fat growth, especially on catch-up growth in low birth weight infants.

Subjects/Methods:

We included 47 healthy neonates (30 males, 17 females), including 7 small for gestational age. We measured serum LPLm and IGF-I concentrations at birth and 1 month, and analyzed those associations with subcutaneous fat accumulation.

Results:

Serum LPLm and IGF-I concentrations increased markedly during the first month, and positively correlated with the sum of skinfold thicknesses both at birth (r=0.573, P=0.0001; r=0.457, P=0.0035) and at 1 month (r=0.614, P<0.0001; r=0.787, P<0.0001, respectively). In addition, serum LPLm concentrations correlated inversely to very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL)-TG levels (r=−0.692, P<0.0001 at birth; r=−0.429, P=0.0052 at 1 month). Moreover, the birth weight Z-score had an inverse association with the postnatal changes in individual serum LPLm concentrations (r=−0.639, P<0.0001).

Conclusions:

Both serum LPLm and IGF-I concentrations were the determinants of subcutaneous fat accumulation during the fetal and neonatal periods. During this time, LPL-mediated lipolysis of VLDL-TG may be one of the major mechanisms of rapid growth in subcutaneous fat tissue. Moreover, LPL, as well as IGF-I, may contribute to catch-up growth in smaller neonates.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the medical and nursing staff of the ward for their assistance in this study. TO, SH, and ST designed the study; HM and TY supervised research; SM, AO, RY, and MM helped in data collection; KY and TO analyzed data; and KY and TO drafted the paper. This study was partly supported by Health and Labour Science Research Grants: Comprehensive Research on Cardiovascular Disease, 17160501, in Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    K Yoshikawa, T Okada, S Munakata, A Okahashi, R Yonezawa, M Makimoto, S Hosono, S Takahashi & H Mugishima

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    T Yamamoto

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  1. K Yoshikawa
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  2. T Okada
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Correspondence to T Okada.

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Yoshikawa, K., Okada, T., Munakata, S. et al. Association between serum lipoprotein lipase mass concentration and subcutaneous fat accumulation during neonatal period. Eur J Clin Nutr 64, 447–453 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2010.25

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