Abstract
Increased maternal blood concentrations of leptin and decreased adiponectin levels, which are common disturbances in obesity, may be involved in offspring adiposity by programming fetal adipose tissue development. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between maternal leptin and adiponectin concentrations and newborn adiposity. This was a cross-sectional study involving 210 healthy mother-newborn pairs from a public maternity hospital in São Paulo, Brazil. Maternal blood samples were collected after delivery and leptin and adiponectin concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Newborn body composition was estimated by air displacement plethysmography. The association between maternal leptin and adiponectin concentrations and newborn adiposity (fat mass percentage, FM%) was evaluated by multiple linear regression, controlling for maternal age, socioeconomic status, parity, pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI), weight gain, gestational age, and newborn age at the time of measurement. No relationship was found between maternal leptin and FM% of male or female newborn infants. Maternal adiponectin (p = 0.001) and pre-pregnancy BMI (p < 0.001; adj. R2 = 0.19) were positively associated with FM% of newborn males, indicating that maternal adiponectin is involved in fetal fat deposition in a sex-specific manner. Large-scale epidemiological, longitudinal studies are necessary to confirm our results.
Highlights
Obesity is a global health problem and a risk factor for a number of chronic diseases [1,2]
Most women did not gain weight during pregnancy according to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations [22]
Maternal leptin concentration was not associated with fetal adiposity
Summary
Obesity is a global health problem and a risk factor for a number of chronic diseases [1,2]. It is well recognized that early life events have a long-term influence on disease risk later in life, a phenomenon known as “early life programming” in which the fetus makes adaptations to an adverse intrauterine environment to increase its immediate chance of survival [6]. These later-life changes become maladaptive, increasing the risk for a range of chronic diseases such as obesity [3], diabetes, and hypertension [6,7]. Cnattingius et al [3] suggested a generational cycle of obesity as mothers who were born large for gestational age have a higher risk of obesity and are more likely to have a large-for-gestational-age baby, indicating that obesity may be programmed in utero.
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