Abstract
Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is the most deleterious health effect derived from alcohol consumption during pregnancy and is placed at the end of the Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). Few studies have proposed potential molecular biomarkers of physical and neurological damage associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. We prospectively recruited 55 children from 8 to 12 years old, with a prenatal assessment for ethanol exposure using meconium analysis of fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE). The control group was established for FAEE < 2 nmol/g (n = 31) and a Prenatal Ethanol Exposure (PEE) group for FAEEs > 2 nmol/g (n = 33). Moreover, 98 children adopted from Eastern European Countries (EEC) were also recruited to evaluate FASD diagnosis comprising 31 cases with complete FAS, 42 with partial FAS, 6 with ARBD and 5 with ARND. Serum values of IGF-I and IGF-II for all children recruited were determined by immunoassay. Anthropometric and neurocognitive evaluation showed severe impairments in FAS children, moderate effects in PEE and no harmful effects in the control group with no prenatal exposure to alcohol. Analysis of IGF-I and IGF-II serum concentrations revealed that FASD from EEC as well as PEE children showed significantly lower concentrations of both IGF-I and IFG-II than the control group and reference values. Moreover, Spearman correlations showed a significant effect of IGF-I on anthropometric measurements in girls, whereas IGF-II affected the neuropsychological variables in both genders. These findings validate the use of growth factors IGF-I and IGF-II as surrogate biomarkers of damage induced by prenatal exposure to ethanol and could be used in the diagnosis of foetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
Highlights
Alcohol is known to be the most common human teratogen and its consumption during pregnancy can cause severe adverse effects on the human foetus
Meconium analysis of fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) in Spanish children showed that 24 subjects had been prenatally exposed to ethanol (PEE, meconium FAEE > 2 nmol/g) and 31 were negative, which acted as the control group
84 of the European Countries (EEC) children were diagnosed with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) while 11 were considered NO FASD and 3 children were diagnosed with other syndromes such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Summary
Alcohol is known to be the most common human teratogen and its consumption during pregnancy can cause severe adverse effects on the human foetus. The authors observed that children heavily exposed to ethanol showed significant prenatal and postnatal growth restriction which correlated with a greater risk for cognitive deficits generated during foetal development These results demonstrated that children’s growth pattern might predict the severity of neurocognitive damage produced by foetal alcohol exposure[15]. The authors observed a significant decrease in IGF-I serum concentrations as well as an increase in IGF-II concentrations in children prenatally exposed to alcohol, suggesting that these growth factors could be identified as potential biomarkers of PEE16. Other evidence suggested a possible effect of alcohol on the regulation of the IGF-I metabolism, triggering reduced levels of IGF-I, IGFBP3 but no alteration in IGF-II concentrations[17] In this context, the objective of this study was to determine whether IGF-I and IGF-II can be validated as biomarkers of damage produced by alcohol exposure during pregnancy
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