Cord blood fatty acid binding protein 4 and lipids in infants born small- or large-for-gestational-age

Xin Liu; Tao Zheng; Min-Yi Tao; Rong Huang; Guang-Hui Zhang; Meng-Nan Yang; Ya-Jie Xu; Wen-Juan Wang; Hua He; Fang Fang; Yu Dong; Jian-Gao Fan; Jun Zhang; Fengxiu Ouyang; Fei Li; Zhong-Cheng Luo

doi:10.3389/fped.2023.1078048

Cord blood fatty acid binding protein 4 and lipids in infants born small- or large-for-gestational-age

Front Pediatr. 2023 May 19:11:1078048. doi: 10.3389/fped.2023.1078048. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Xin Liu^{1

2}, Tao Zheng³, Min-Yi Tao¹, Rong Huang², Guang-Hui Zhang⁴, Meng-Nan Yang¹, Ya-Jie Xu¹, Wen-Juan Wang^{1

5}, Hua He¹, Fang Fang¹, Yu Dong¹, Jian-Gao Fan⁶, Jun Zhang¹, Fengxiu Ouyang¹, Fei Li¹, Zhong-Cheng Luo^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children's Environmental Health, Early Life Health Institute, and Department of Pediatrics, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao-Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
² Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Prosserman Centre for Population Health Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mount Sinai Hospital, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
³ Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao-Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Department of Clinical Assay Laboratory, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao-Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
⁵ Clinical Skills Center, School of Clinical Medicine, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Jinan, China.
⁶ Center for Fatty Liver, Shanghai Key Lab of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Department of Gastroenterology, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Aim: Adverse (poor or excessive) fetal growth "programs" an elevated risk of type 2 diabetes. Fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) has been implicated in regulating insulin sensitivity and lipid metabolism relevant to fetal growth. We sought to determine whether FABP4 is associated with poor or excessive fetal growth and fetal lipids.

Methods: In a nested case-control study in the Shanghai Birth Cohort including 60 trios of small-for-gestational-age (SGA, an indicator of poor fetal growth), large-for-gestational-age (LGA, an indicator of excessive fetal growth) and optimal-for-gestational-age (OGA, control) infants, we measured cord blood concentrations of FABP4 and lipids [high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterols, triglycerides (TG)].

Results: Adjusting for maternal and neonatal characteristics, higher cord blood FABP4 concentrations were associated with a lower odds of SGA [OR = 0.29 (0.11-0.77) per log unit increment in FABP4, P = 0.01], but were not associated with LGA (P = 0.46). Cord blood FABP4 was positively correlated with both LDL (r = 0.29, P = 0.025) and HDL (r = 0.33, P = 0.01) in LGA infants only.

Conclusion: FABP4 was inversely associated with the risk of SGA. The study is the first to demonstrate LGA-specific positive correlations of cord blood FABP4 with HDL and LDL cholesterols, suggesting a role of FABP4 in fetal lipid metabolism in subjects with excessive fetal growth.

Keywords: cord blood; fatty acid binding protein 4; large for gestational age; lipids; small for gestational age, HDL, LDL.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by research grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2019YFA0802501, 2017YFE0124700), the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission (2020CXJQ01, 20194Y0157), the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission (19410713500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81930095, 81903323, 82204064, 81761128035 and 81961128023), the Shanghai Pujiang Program (22PJD045), the National Human Genetic Resources Sharing Service Platform (2005DKA21300), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (158616). The funders have no role in all aspects of the study, including study design, data collection and analysis, the preparation of the manuscript and the decision for publication.