Abstract
ABSTRACTWe investigated relationships between placental size and offspring adolescent bone indices using a population‐based, mother–offspring cohort. The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) recruited pregnant women from the southwest of England between 1991 and 1993. There were 12,942 singleton babies born at term who survived at least the first 12 months. From these, 8933 placentas were preserved in formaldehyde, with maternal permission for their use in research studies. At the approximate age of 15.5 years, the children underwent a dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan (measurements taken of the whole body minus head bone area [BA], bone mineral content [BMC], and areal bone mineral density [aBMD]). A peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) scan (Stratec XCT2000L; Stratec, Pforzheim, Germany) at the 50% tibial site was performed at this visit and at approximately age 17.7 years. In 2010 a sample of 1680 placentas were measured and photographed. To enable comparison of effect size across different variables, predictor and outcome variables were standardized to Z‐scores and therefore results may be interpreted as partial correlation coefficients. Complete placental, DXA, and pQCT data were available for 518 children at age 15.5 years. After adjustment for gender, gestational age at birth, and age at time of pQCT, the placental area was positively associated with endosteal circumference (β [95% CI]: 0.21 [0.13, 0.30], p < 0.001), periosteal circumference (β [95% CI]: 0.19 [0.10, 0.27], p < 0.001), and cortical area (β [95% CI]: 0.10 [0.01, 0.18], p = 0.03), and was negatively associated with cortical density (β [95% CI]: –0.11 [–0.20, –0.03], p = 0.01) at age 15.5 years. Similar relationships were observed for placental volume, and after adjustment for additional maternal and offspring covariates. These results suggest that previously observed associations between placental size and offspring bone development persist into older childhood, even during puberty, and that placental size is differentially related to bone size and volumetric density. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).
Highlights
The size of the placenta reflects its ability to transfer nutrients[1] to the developing fetus, and indices of placental morphology are subject to wide variations.[2]
We have previously shown that birth weight is associated with bone mineral content (BMC) in adulthood, and that poor early postnatal growth predicts adverse proximal femoral morphology[5,6] and increased risk of hip fracture in older age.[7,8] placental transfer of nutrition from mother to fetus is critical in the determination of birth weight,(9) there is a paucity of evidence relating to associations between placental morphology and offspring bone mass
Using data from a large prospective mother– offspring cohort, the Southampton Women’s Survey, we observed that placental volume, measured by high-resolution ultrasound in midpregnancy, was positively associated with neonatal bone size and content measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).(10) It remains unclear, whether these associations might persist into later childhood and whether placental size may have differential relationships with bone size and density
Summary
The size of the placenta reflects its ability to transfer nutrients[1] to the developing fetus, and indices of placental morphology are subject to wide variations.[2] There is increasing evidence that attributes such as placental area and volume may predict the risk of common chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in later life. We have previously shown that birth weight is associated with bone mineral content (BMC) in adulthood, and that poor early postnatal growth predicts adverse proximal femoral morphology[5,6] and increased risk of hip fracture in older age.[7,8] placental transfer of nutrition from mother to fetus is critical in the determination of birth weight,(9) there is a paucity of evidence relating to associations between placental morphology and offspring bone mass. The aim of this study, was to investigate whether placental size is associated with indices of bone size, geometry, and density in the offspring, assessed using peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) during adolescence, in a UK population-based, mother–offspring cohort
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