Background: Maternal smoking is linked with several neonatal metabolic disorders. Adiponectin is an adipose-specific hormone with anti-inflammatory and antiatherogenic properties.
Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of maternal smoking on cord blood adiponectin concentrations.
Methods: We evaluate the effect of maternal smoking on cord blood adiponectin concentrations comparing 14 full-term and seven preterm newborns born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy with 77 full-term and 10 preterm neonates born to non-smokers mothers.
Results: Maternal smoking during pregnancy was significantly associated with decreased adiponectin levels of preterm newborns (p < 0.05).
Conclusions: Our findings also reveal a significant relationship between the reported number of cigarettes smoked during pregnancy and cord blood adiponectin concentrations (p = 0.01), suggesting that this association could have a causal relationship.