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Associations of maternal blood pressure-raising polygenic risk scores with fetal weight

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 36, pages 69–76 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Maternal blood pressure (BP) is associated with variations in fetal weight, an important determinant of neonatal and adult health. However, the association of BP-raising genetic risk with fetal weight is unknown. We tested the associations of maternal BP-raising polygenic risk scores (PRS) with estimated fetal weights (EFWs) at 13, 20, 27, and 40 weeks of gestation. This study included 622 White, 637 Black, 568 Hispanic, and 238 Asian pregnant women with genotype data from the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies. PRS of systolic (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) were calculated for each participant based on summary statistics from a recent genome-wide association study. Linear regression models were used to compare mean EFW differences between the highest versus lowest tertile of PRS, adjusting for maternal age, education, parity, genetic principal components and fetal sex. Hispanics in the highest DBP PRS tertile, compared to those in the lowest, had 8.1 g (95% CI: −15.1, −1.1), 32.4 g (−58.4, −6.4) and 119.4 g (−218.1, −20.7) lower EFW at 20, 27 and 40 weeks, respectively. Similarly, Asians in the highest DBP PRS tertile had 137.2 g (−263.5, −10.8) lower EFW at week 40, and those in the highest tertile of SBP PRS had 3.2 g (−5.8, −0.7), 12.9 g (−23.5, −2.4), and 39.8 g (−76.9, −2.7) lower EFWs at 13, 20, and 27 weeks. The findings showed that pregnant women’s genetic susceptibility to high BP contributes to reduced fetal growth, suggesting a potential future clinical application in perinatal health.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the study participants of the NICHD Fetal Growth Studies. We thank research teams at all participating clinical centers (which include Christina Care Health Systems, Columbia University, Fountain Valley Hospital, California, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, New York Hospital, Queens, Northwestern University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of California, Irvine, Medical University of South Carolina, Saint Peters University Hospital, Tufts University, and Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island). The authors also acknowledge the Wadsworth Center, C-TASC and The EMMES Corporations in providing data and imaging support. This work utilized the computational resources of the NIH HPC Biowulf cluster (http://hpc.nih.gov).

Funding

This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health including American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding via contract numbers HHSN275200800013C; HHSN275200800002I; HHSN27500006; HHSN275200800003IC; HHSN275200800014C; HHSN275200800012C; HHSN275200800028C; HHSN275201000009C and HHSN27500008. Additional support was obtained from the NIH Office of the Director, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

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  1. Epidemiology Branch, Division of Intramural Population Health Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Tsegaselassie Workalemahu, Marion Ouidir, Jing Wu, Cuilin Zhang & Fasil Tekola-Ayele

  2. Harvard Medical School, Department of Population Medicine and Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Institute, Boston, MA, USA

    Mohammad L. Rahman

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Correspondence to Fasil Tekola-Ayele.

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Workalemahu, T., Rahman, M.L., Ouidir, M. et al. Associations of maternal blood pressure-raising polygenic risk scores with fetal weight. J Hum Hypertens 36, 69–76 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-021-00483-x

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