Plasma Acylcarnitines during Pregnancy and Neonatal Anthropometry: A Longitudinal Study in a Multiracial Cohort
Yiqing Song,
Chen Lyu,
Ming Li,
Mohammad L. Rahman,
Zhen Chen,
Yeyi Zhu,
Stefanie N. Hinkle,
Liwei Chen,
Susanna D. Mitro,
Ling-Jun Li,
Natalie L. Weir,
Michael Y. Tsai,
Cuilin Zhang
Affiliations
Yiqing Song
Department of Epidemiology, Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA
Chen Lyu
Department of Population Health, Division of Biostatistics, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, NYU Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA
Ming Li
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA
Mohammad L. Rahman
Department of Population Medicine and Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Zhen Chen
Division of Population Health Research, <i>Eunice Kennedy Shriver</i> National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA
Yeyi Zhu
Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, Oakland, CA 94612, USA
Stefanie N. Hinkle
Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
Liwei Chen
Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
Susanna D. Mitro
Division of Population Health Research, <i>Eunice Kennedy Shriver</i> National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA
Ling-Jun Li
Department of O&G, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 119228, Singapore
Natalie L. Weir
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Michael Y. Tsai
Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Cuilin Zhang
Division of Population Health Research, <i>Eunice Kennedy Shriver</i> National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute of Health, Bethesda, MD 20817, USA
As surrogate readouts reflecting mitochondrial dysfunction, elevated levels of plasma acylcarnitines have been associated with cardiometabolic disorders, such as obesity, gestational diabetes, and type 2 diabetes. This study aimed to examine prospective associations of acylcarnitine profiles across gestation with neonatal anthropometry, including birthweight, birthweight z score, body length, sum of skinfolds, and sum of body circumferences. We quantified 28 acylcarnitines using electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry in plasma collected at gestational weeks 10–14, 15–26, 23–31, and 33–39 among 321 pregnant women from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Fetal Growth Studies-Singletons. A latent-class trajectory approach was applied to identify trajectories of acylcarnitines across gestation. We examined the associations of individual acylcarnitines and distinct trajectory groups with neonatal anthropometry using weighted generalized linear models adjusting for maternal age, race/ethnicity, education, parity, gestational age at blood collection, and pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI). We identified three distinct trajectory groups in C2, C3, and C4 and two trajectory groups in C5, C10, C5–DC, C8:1, C10:1, and C12, respectively. Women with nonlinear decreasing C12 levels across gestation (5.7%) had offspring with significantly lower birthweight (−475 g; 95% CI, −942, −6.79), birthweight z score (−0.39, −0.71, −0.06), and birth length (−1.38 cm, −2.49, −0.27) than those with persistently stable C12 levels (94.3%) (all nominal p value p < 0.05). In conclusion, this study suggests that distinctive trajectories of C10, C10:1, and C12 acylcarnitine levels throughout pregnancy were significantly associated with neonatal anthropometry.
