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Association of maternal whole blood fatty acid status during the prenatal period with term birth dimensions: a cross-sectional study

  • Xiaofang Jia , Masahiro Tagawa , Hiroshi Yatsuya , Hisao Naito , Yumi Hayashi , Husna Yetti , Seiko Sasaki , Atsuko Araki , Chihiro Miyashita , Tamiko Ikeno , Reiko Kishi and Tamie Nakajima EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: December 6, 2014

Abstract

Objective: To investigate selected fatty acid (FA) profiles in maternal whole blood during normal pregnancy and to evaluate their associations with term birth dimensions.

Methods: We characterized nine major maternal blood FAs representing four FA families during the second and third trimester of pregnancy, and explored their associations with birth weight, length, and chest or head circumferences by multivariate regression models, using data from 318 mother-newborn pairs of the Hokkaido Study.

Results: The absolute and/or relative contents of maternal blood docosahexaenoic acid and arachidonic acid were lowest at 35–41 gestational weeks during pregnancy, as was the essential FA status index. Different from palmitic and stearic acids, palmitoleic and oleic acid contents were higher at 35–41 gestational weeks than those at 23–31 gestational weeks. Three FA components were identified through principal component analysis, and were used in association analysis. Component 3, which was positively and significantly loaded by eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), was associated with chest circumference [β=0.281, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.006, 0.556] at 35–41 gestational weeks (P=0.046). No significant associations were observed for Component 1 and 2 loaded by FAs except EPA.

Conclusion: Maternal blood EPA content may have an important influence on infant chest circumference.


Corresponding author: Tamie Nakajima, PhD, College of Life and Health Sciences, Chubu University, Kasugai 487–8501, Japan, Tel.: +81 568 51 9655, Fax: +81 568 51 5370, E-mail: ; and Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by Grants-in-Aid for Health Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (25253050). Additionally, we would like to thank the medical staff and the participants at Sapporo Toho Hospital, and staff of the “Hokkaido Study on Environment and Children’s Health”. We also thank Ms Aiko Tajima at the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health of Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine for the maternal blood TG and FA measurements.

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The authors stated that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Received: 2014-8-17
Accepted: 2014-10-16
Published Online: 2014-12-6
Published in Print: 2015-9-1

©2015 by De Gruyter

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