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Associations of maternal plasma and umbilical cord plasma metabolomics profiles with birth anthropometric measures

Pediatric Research volume 94, pages 135–142 (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

The metabolomics profiles of maternal plasma during pregnancy and cord plasma at birth might influence fetal growth and birth anthropometry. The objective was to examine how maternal plasma and umbilical cord plasma metabolites are associated with newborn anthropometric measures, a known predictor of future health outcomes.

Methods

Pregnant women between 24 and 28 weeks of gestation were recruited as part of a prospective cohort study. Blood samples from 413 women at enrollment and 787 infant cord blood samples were analyzed using the Biocrates AbsoluteIDQ® p180 kit. Multivariable linear regression models were used to examine associations of cord and maternal metabolites with infant anthropometry at birth.

Results

In cord blood samples from this rural cohort from New Hampshire of largely white residents, 13 metabolites showed negative associations, and 10 metabolites showed positive associations with birth weight Z-score. Acylcarnitine C5 showed negative association, and 4 lysophosphatidylcholines showed positive associations with birth length Z-score. Maternal blood metabolites did not significantly correlate with birth weight and length Z-scores.

Conclusions

Consistent findings were observed for several acylcarnitines that play a role in utilization of energy sources, and a lysophosphatidylcholine that is part of oxidative stress and inflammatory response pathways in cord plasma samples.

Impact

  • The metabolomics profiles of maternal plasma during pregnancy and cord plasma at birth may influence fetal growth and birth anthropometry.

  • This study examines the independent effects of maternal gestational and infant cord blood metabolomes across different classes of metabolites on birth anthropometry.

  • Acylcarnitine species were negatively associated and glycerophospholipids species were positively associated with weight and length Z-scores at birth in the cord plasma samples, but not in the maternal plasma samples.

  • This study identifies lipid metabolites in infants that possibly may affect early growth.

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Fig. 1: Three plots present log10(p value) for the association between each metabolite or custom indicator/ratio and three newborn outcome measures (weight, length, and weight-for-length Z-scores) from the linear regression models.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon request and completion of a satisfactory data transfer agreement.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the children and families who made this study possible and to the staff of the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Institutes of Health of Environmental Health Sciences, grant numbers P01ES022832 and P20ES018175, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, grant number U24DK097193, the Office of the Director, grant number UH3OD023275, and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, grant number P20GM104416. The study sponsors had no role in study design, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, the writing of the report, and the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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Author notes

  1. Modupe Coker

    Present address: Department of Oral Biology, Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, Rutgers State University of New Jersey, Newark, NJ, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Dabin Yeum, Diane Gilbert-Diamond, Brett Doherty, Margaret R. Karagas & Anne G. Hoen

  2. Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Center at Dartmouth, Hanover, NH, USA

    Diane Gilbert-Diamond & Margaret R. Karagas

  3. Department of Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health, Nutrition Research Institute, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kannapolis, NC, USA

    Delisha Stewart, David Kirchner, Susan McRitchie & Susan Sumner

  4. Department of Biomedical Data Science, Geisel School of Medicine, Lebanon, NH, USA

    Anne G. Hoen

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Contributions

M.R.K. and S.S. designed and supervised the data collection. A.G.H., D.G.-D., S.S., S.M. and M.R.K. conceptualized the study. D.Y. analyzed the data and wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All co-authors (D.G.-D., B.D., M.C., D.S., D.K., S.M., S.S., M.R.K., and A.G.H.) read, edited several draft versions, and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dabin Yeum.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All study procedures were approved by the Center for the Protection of Human Subjects at Dartmouth College (protocol code STUDY00020844). All participants provided written informed consent after they were explained the aims of the study, the procedure of the data collection, and voluntary nature of participation that they were free to withdraw from the study at any time.

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Yeum, D., Gilbert-Diamond, D., Doherty, B. et al. Associations of maternal plasma and umbilical cord plasma metabolomics profiles with birth anthropometric measures. Pediatr Res 94, 135–142 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-022-02449-2

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