Abstract
High-quality protein has been associated with child growth; however, the role of the amino acid cysteine remains unclear. The aim was to measure the extent to which plasma total cysteine (tCys) concentration is associated with anthropometric status in children aged 6–30 months living in New Delhi, India. The study was a prospective cohort study including 2102 children. We calculated Z-scores for height-for-age (HAZ), weight-for-height (WHZ), or weight-for-age (WAZ) according to the WHO Child Growth Standards. We used multiple regression models to estimate the association between tCys and the anthropometric indices. A high proportion of the children were categorized as malnourished at enrolment; 41% were stunted (HAZ ≤ −2), 19% were wasted (WHZ ≤ −2) and 42% underweight (WAZ ≤ −2). Plasma total cysteine (tCys) was significantly associated with HAZ, WHZ and WAZ after adjusting for relevant confounders (p < 0.001). Low tCys (≤25th percentile) was associated with a decrease of 0.28 Z-scores for HAZ, 0.10 Z-scores for WHZ, and 0.21 Z-scores for WAZ compared to being >25th percentile. In young Indian children from low-to-middle socioeconomic neighborhoods, a low plasma total cysteine concentration was associated with an increased risk of poor anthropometric status.
Highlights
IntroductionIt is estimated that globally, 150.8 million children under the age of 5 are stunted and 50.5 million are wasted [1]
Child undernutrition is a significant public health problem in developing countries
Plasma total cysteine concentrations and anthropometric measurements at both time points were were available for 2102 children (Figure 1)
Summary
It is estimated that globally, 150.8 million children under the age of 5 are stunted and 50.5 million are wasted [1] These forms of malnutrition are associated with adverse short- and long-term consequences for growth and development [2,3,4] as well as for survival [5,6]. Young children grow rapidly and have additional nutritional demands to enhance optimal growth and development [7]. These demands are increased by environmental influences, such as a high burden of clinical and sub-clinical infections [8,9,10]. Intake of high-quality protein has been shown to promote childhood growth [9,10,11,12,13] with a suggested pathway via the production of insulin-like
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