Low maternal vitamin B12 status is associated with lower cord blood HDL cholesterol in white Caucasians living in the UK.

Antonysunil Adaikalakoteswari,Chittaranjan Yajnik,Gyanendra Tripathi,Kavitha Sivakumar,Manu Vatish,Catherine Wood,Neil Anderson,Craig Webster,Alexander Lawson,Ponnusamy Saravanan,Philip Mcternan

doi:10.3390/nu7042401

Antonysunil Adaikalakoteswari, Chittaranjan Yajnik + Show 9 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/nu7042401

Copy DOI

Abstract

Background and Aims: Studies in South Asian population show that low maternal vitamin B12 associates with insulin resistance and small for gestational age in the offspring. Low vitamin B12 status is attributed to vegetarianism in these populations. It is not known whether low B12 status is associated with metabolic risk of the offspring in whites, where the childhood metabolic disorders are increasing rapidly. Here, we studied whether maternal B12 levels associate with metabolic risk of the offspring at birth. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of 91 mother-infant pairs (n = 182), of white Caucasian origin living in the UK. Blood samples were collected from white pregnant women at delivery and their newborns (cord blood). Serum vitamin B12, folate, homocysteine as well as the relevant metabolic risk factors were measured. Results: The prevalence of low serum vitamin B12 (<191 ng/L) and folate (<4.6 μg/L) were 40% and 11%, respectively. Maternal B12 was inversely associated with offspring’s Homeostasis Model Assessment 2-Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR), triglycerides, homocysteine and positively with HDL-cholesterol after adjusting for age and BMI. In regression analysis, after adjusting for likely confounders, maternal B12 is independently associated with neonatal HDL-cholesterol and homocysteine but not triglycerides or HOMA-IR. Conclusions: Our study shows that low B12 status is common in white women and is independently associated with adverse cord blood cholesterol.

Highlights

The prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing rapidly [1,2]
Children born to mothers with low B12 status had significantly lower B12 levels compared to those born to mothers with normal levels (Table 2)
Our study is the first to show that maternal vitamin B12 levels adversely associated with markers of metabolic risk at birth, in particular lipid profiles

Summary

Introduction

The prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing rapidly [1,2]. Recently, the Early ChildhoodLongitudinal Study demonstrated that 27.3% of children were either overweight or obese by the time they enter kindergarten in the United States [1]. The prevalence of childhood obesity is increasing rapidly [1,2]. Higher rate of childhood obesity is a likely contributor for the increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) earlier in life as well as pre-gestational and gestational diabetes (GDM) in women [3]. Studies in South Asian population show that low maternal vitamin B12 associates with insulin resistance and small for gestational age in the offspring. Low vitamin B12 status is attributed to vegetarianism in these populations. It is not known whether low B12 status is associated with metabolic risk of the offspring in whites, where the childhood metabolic disorders are increasing rapidly.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion