Novel associations between parental and newborn cord blood metabolic profiles in the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study

Abstract

Background:More than one third of Norwegian women and men between 20 and 40 years of age have elevated cholesterol concentration. Parental metabolic health around conception or during pregnancy may affect the offspring’s cardiovascular disease risk. Lipids are important for fetal development, but the determinants of cord blood lipids have scarcely been studied. We therefore aimed to describe the associations between maternal andpaternal peri-pregnancy lipid and metabolic profile and newborn cord blood lipid and metabolic profile. Methods:This study is based on 710 mother–father–newborn trios from the Norwegian Mother, Father and ChildCohort Study (MoBa) and uses data from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN). The sample included in thisstudy consisted of parents with and without self-reported hypercholesterolemia the last 6 months before pregnancy and their partners and newborns. Sixty-four cord blood metabolites detected by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy were analyzed by linear mixed model analyses. The false discovery rate procedure wasused to correct for multiple testing. Results:Among mothers with hypercholesterolemia, maternal and newborn plasma high-density lipoproteincholesterol, apolipoprotein A1, linoleic acid, docosahexaenoic acid, alanine, glutamine, isoleucine, leucine, valine,creatinine, and particle concentration of medium high-density lipoprotein were significantly positively associated(0.001≤q≤0.09). Among mothers without hypercholesterolemia, maternal and newborn linoleic acid, valine,tyrosine, citrate, creatinine, high-density lipoprotein size, and particle concentration of small high-density lipoproteinwere significantly positively associated (0.02≤q≤0.08). Among fathers with hypercholesterolemia, paternal andnewborn ratio of apolipoprotein B to apolipoprotein A1 were significantly positively associated (q= 0.04). Amongfathers without hypercholesterolemia, no significant associations were found between paternal and newbornmetabolites. Sex differences were found for many cord blood lipids. Conclusions:Maternal and paternal metabolites and newborn sex were associated with several cord bloodmetabolites. This may potentially affect the offspring’s long-term cardiovascular disease risk.Keywords:MoBa, the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study, MBRN, Medical Birth Registry of Norway,Cholesterol, Metabolic profiling, Cord blood, Sex differences