Associations of Plasma Fatty Acid Patterns During Pregnancy With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Peiyun Li; Shan Hu; Yalun Zhu; Taoping Sun; Yue Huang; Zihui Xu; Hongjie Liu; Cheng Luo; Shiqiong Zhou; Aijun Tan; Liegang Liu

doi:10.3389/fnut.2022.836115

Associations of Plasma Fatty Acid Patterns During Pregnancy With Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Front Nutr. 2022 May 6:9:836115. doi: 10.3389/fnut.2022.836115. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Peiyun Li^{1

2

3}, Shan Hu^{1

2}, Yalun Zhu^{1

2}, Taoping Sun^{1

2}, Yue Huang^{1

2}, Zihui Xu^{1

2}, Hongjie Liu^{1

2}, Cheng Luo^{1

2}, Shiqiong Zhou³, Aijun Tan⁴, Liegang Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Hubei Key Laboratory of Food Nutrition and Safety, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
² The Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
³ Department of Clinical Nutrition, Wuhan Children's Hospital (Wuhan Maternal and Child Healthcare Hospital), Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
⁴ Zhuhai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Zhuhai, China.

Abstract

Background: Limited studies have explored the difference of fatty acid profile between women with and without gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), and the results were inconsistent. Individual fatty acids tend to be interrelated because of the shared food sources and metabolic pathways. Thus, whether fatty acid patters during pregnancy were related to GDM odds needs further exploration.

Objective: To identify plasma fatty acid patters during pregnancy and their associations with odds of GDM.

Methods: A hospital-based case-control study including 217 GDM cases and 217 matched controls was carried out in urban Wuhan, China from August 2012 to April 2015. All the participants were enrolled at the time of GDM screening and provided fasting blood samples with informed consent. We measured plasma concentrations of fatty acids by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and derived potential fatty acid patterns (FAPs) through principal components analysis. Conditional logistic regression and restricted cubic spline model were used to evaluate the associations between individual fatty acids or FAPs and odds of GDM.

Results: Twenty individual fatty acids with relative concentrations ≥0.05% were included in the analyses. Compared with control group, GDM group had significantly higher concentrations of total fatty acids, 24:1n-9, and relatively lower levels of 14:0, 15:0, 17:0, 18:0, 24:0, 16:1n-7, 20:1n-9,18:3n-6, 20:2n-6, 18:3n-3, 20:3n-3, 22:5n-3. Two novel patterns of fatty acids were identified to be associated with lower odds of GDM: (1) relatively higher odd-chain fatty acids, 14:0, 18:0, 18:3n-3, 20:2n-6, 20:3n-6 and lower 24:1n-9 and 18:2n-6 [adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval) (CI) for quartiles 4 vs. 1: 0.42 (0.23-0.76), P-trend = 0.002], (2) relatively higher n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, 24:0, 18:3n-6 and lower 16:0 and 20:4n-6 [adjusted OR (95% CI) for quartiles 4 vs. 1: 0.48 (0.26-0.90), P-trend = 0.018].

Conclusion: Our findings suggested that two novel FAPs were inversely associated with GDM odds. The combination of circulating fatty acids could be a more significant marker of GDM development than individual fatty acids or their subgroups.

Keywords: case-control study; fatty acid; gestational diabetes mellitus; pattern; pregnancy.