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Nutrition during the early life cycle

Association between maternal urinary selenium during pregnancy and newborn telomere length: results from a birth cohort study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 76, pages 716–721 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Background

Newborn telomere length is considered as an effective predictor of lifespan and health outcomes in later life. Selenium is an essential trace element for human health, and its antioxidation is of great significance for the prevention of telomere erosion.

Methods

We recruited 746 mother–newborn pairs in Wuhan Children’s Hospital between 2013 and 2015. Urine samples were repeatedly collected at three time points during pregnancy, and umbilical cord blood samples were collected right after parturition. Urinary selenium concentration was detected using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and newborn telomere length was measured using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. We applied general estimating equations to examine the trimester-specific association between maternal urinary selenium during pregnancy and newborn telomere length.

Results

The median of creatinine-corrected selenium concentrations during pregnancy were 16.29, 18.08, and 18.35 μg/g·creatinine in the first, second, and third trimesters, respectively. Selenium concentrations in all the three trimesters were significantly associated with newborn telomere length. Per doubling of maternal urinary selenium concentrations was associated with 6.44% (95% CI: 0.92, 12.25), 6.54% (95% CI: 0.17, 13.31), and 6.02% (95% CI: 0.29, 12.09) longer newborn telomere length in the first, second, and third trimesters, respectively, after adjusting for potential confounders.

Conclusions

This is the first study to provide evidence for the effect of maternal selenium levels on fetal telomere erosion. Findings from our study suggested that maternal urinary selenium was positively associated with newborn telomere length, indicating that intrauterine selenium exposure might have effect on initial setting of human telomere length.

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Fig. 1: Trimester-specific association of maternal selenium concentrations (creatinine-corrected) categorized by quintiles during pregnancy with newborn telomere length (highest quintiles were set as reference).

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (grant number: 2017YFC0212003); National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers: 91643207, 81273083); and the Hubei Province Health & Family Planning Scientific Research Project (grant number: WJ2017Z001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Maternal and Child Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China

    Lulin Wang, Lulu Song, Bingqing Liu, Lina Zhang, Mingyang Wu, Yunyun Liu, Jianing Bi, Senbei Yang, Yaohua Tian & Youjie Wang

  2. Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, Ministry of Education & Ministry of Environmental Protection, and State Key Laboratory of Environmental Health, School of Public Health (Incubation), Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China

    Lulin Wang, Lulu Song, Bingqing Liu, Lina Zhang, Mingyang Wu, Yunyun Liu, Jianing Bi, Wei Xia, Yuanyuan Li, Shunqing Xu & Youjie Wang

  3. Wuhan Children’s Hospital (Wuhan Maternal and Child Healthcare Hospital), Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China

    Zhongqiang Cao, Bin Zhang & Aifen Zhou

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Contributions

YW, SX, Y Tian, Y Li, WX, AZ, and BZ designed research and reviewed the manuscript. ZC and SY assisted in the study design and the implementation of the study. LS, BL, LZ, MW, Y Liu, and JB conducted research and critically reviewed the manuscript for important intellectual content. LW performed statistical analysis and drafted the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Youjie Wang.

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Wang, L., Song, L., Liu, B. et al. Association between maternal urinary selenium during pregnancy and newborn telomere length: results from a birth cohort study. Eur J Clin Nutr 76, 716–721 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-021-01004-2

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